Freewill and Chains
by Fuiku
Summary: Jacob is 16, and he has no brothers, no enemies, and no way out of his responsibilities as the newly phased Alpha, waiting for his pack. The only thing keeping him sane is the little girl who comes everyday to see her wolf in the woods. B/J AH/AU
1. Fate Can No Further Go

The sun beat down on red leaves, setting them alight like some almighty, effervescent funeral pyre.

Jacob was hot.

The blazing illusion of the leaves made him remember where he'd just been, what he'd just done, made him think of another flame- hot, purple, the smoke billowing in deceptively beautiful coils. It was an image he wished he could forget. The actions and the weight of his duties had set a heaviness in his limbs, attached lead to his muzzle, so that now it lay gracelessly limp between his forepaws.

Jacob was tired.

More leaves had fallen like burnt out sparks onto the ground, burnt brown around the edges, even the yellow and orange ones streaked now with drips and splashes of red.

Jacob was hot, tired, practically immobile, and bleeding.

Jacob was pissed.

_Some honor,_ He thought bitterly. _Mighty fucking protector. Isn't that what they told me I was supposed to be? One month ago, life was normal: friends, father, sudden success with females at school due to freak growth spurt, and then I have one little temper tantrum about a missing transmission part and -BAM!- it's vamp chew toys and flea shampoo for me. Happy 16th Jacob! You can't legally drink yet, but the fate and safety of the rest of the tribe depend on you, even though you can't really hang with most of them anymore, unless you want them to figure out why Harry suddenly thinks it's funny to call you "Fido." _He attempted to move, just to shift his massive head a few inches back to inspect the damages to his legs and flanks, experienced a stomach-turning pain that ricocheted all the way from his nose to his tail, and flopped back down and gave up. Ever since the first god-awful transformation, and subsequent talk with his father and the other elders, he'd felt nothing so much as trapped. The wisest old men in the tribe had reassuringly told him that: No, you aren't crazy, son, this is perfectly normal, path of your ancestors and all, nothing to fear, oh, and by the way, you're the first and, currently, only wolf running, so now you're chief, alpha, designated vampire killer, and it's your job to hang around and wait to train the others- if and when any others should come along. No pressure or anything. Good luck kid!

Jacob had wanted to rebel, he really had. But, when you go straight from mid-puberty to full-grown-and-unbelievably-_defined_ physical maturity in a few months time, and simultaneously develop the ability to sprout fur at the slightest provocation, you more or less have to take the help you're given. So he'd learned control, he'd cut his social contact with others to the bare minimum he could stand, he'd chopped off his hair, marked his skin with his first tattoo, and began patrolling every night, testing his new abilities and searching for any signs of- of all things- vampires. He'd never found any.

Until tonight.

The creature had been male, skinny and seemingly young, with red eyes pooling into void-like black. They reflected an almost desperate hunger, and Jacob had recoiled at first, not just from with nostril searing, treacly, repugnant scent, but also from the manic blood-lust he saw in those eyes. He had thought about what to do, but he honestly didn't have many options. It was here, and it was a clear and present threat to humans. It was alone, but so was he. He had never fought anything before, never been able to do more than plan a few hypothetical strategies in his head, or have extremely unsatisfying mock battles with unsuspecting boulders. He had no experience to guide him, only the knowledge he'd gleaned of his own new body and what had been passed down to him from the elders. But the scent of the vampire reached through his nose straight to a frighteningly primal part of his brain, and yanked it the the forefront. He wanted to kill the thing. The wolf inside of him was practically desperate to tear it to pieces. And somehow, it knew he was there. It had paused, sniffed, given and evil grin, and now it was crouched slightly, arms held loosely at its sides, ready for a fight. "Come on out." It had crooned softly, derisively. "Don't you want to play?" It was challenging him, and his hackles raised and a growl rolled up and out of his throat entirely without his permission. Jacob had no idea what to do, so he had let the wolf take over, raising his paws and lowering them, carefully, silently, his instincts edging him into position. He felt the movement before it happened, the slightest shift of weight, indicating the thing's next course of action. Jacob had attacked.

Jacob had taught the vampire that over-confidence was a mortal flaw.

The vampire had taught Jacob how much his new werewolf body could bleed.

He'd left it in flames and drug himself here, stumbling with pain, his vision blurring slightly, but he'd had to get away from the rotted licorice smell of burning vampire. There was a small stream here, and a breeze came through, leeching the stench of vampire slowly from his fur, although he could still smell his own blood, hot and coppery against the cool air. He didn't dare risk changing his shape, as badly injured as he was, and as sick as he felt he was sure that seeing what his injuries looked like on his human body would only make him feel worse. All he could do was collapse there and wait: wait for his advanced healing to kick in, wait for the blood to stop, and the pain to go away. And none of it was happening fast enough.

God, his life was hell. His life was hell, and this was the lowest point of it, but apparently that wasn't enough for fate, or whatever wretched excuse for an omnipotent being was playing this game. Fate, or _someone_, had apparently decided that misery and bone-wracking physical pain in and of themselves were too good as experiences for Jacob to keep to himself, and the he needed, of all things, a witness.

Someone was coming. He could hear the sound of feet crunching through the undergrowth.

His entire body twitched violently in an attempt to spring to attention, achieving nothing but the sending new sparks of agony all over his body. He relaxed again, a howling chorus of _vampirevampireohshit!I'mgoingtodieshit!shit!vampire_, and he knew that at this point he was hopeless to defend himself. He forced his mind to clear, and his senses to focus. Panicking could only make the situation worse. He strained his ears to listen. Whoever it was, they were close now, and they definitely, yes, there it was, they most certainly had a heartbeat. He could hear it pounding away, cool relief spreading through him and making the sound of it one of the most soothing things he had ever heard. They were closer now, and he could smell them: the person smelled sweet, but not sickly so, young, like an unripe strawberry, and the sound of their step was light. Jacob wandered what a child was doing out here, and then realized that he couldn't even say at this point where "here" was. He could've been passed out in the back thicket of someone's yard, for all he knew. The child was coming closer, and he felt an uncomfortable sensation, almost like embarrassment, trickle down his spine. He still couldn't move.

_Great._ He thought. _Let's make today an even _more_ impressive one for the record books by frightening some kid into hysterics. If I'm lucky I'll get out of this without them bringing back someone to shoot me._

The sound of footsteps stopped at the same time he heard a rustle, and then a shocked little intake of breath. Slowly, painfully Jacob opened his eyes, and was met with the sight of a pair of tiny sneakers, white and dingy, with a pattern of sparkly purple stars. The sneakers shifted nervously as their owner wisely considered flight, and Jacob noticed that they had little, flashing red panels built into the sides, that lit up every time she moved. If he hadn't been convinced before, he certainly was now. He didn't know a lot about vampires yet, but he was sure that even had some horrible abomination occurred and a girl that tiny had been turned into a leech, no self-respecting bloodsucker in their right mind would wear dingy sneakers with sparkly purple stars and flashing, day-glow red, lights. His eyes traveled upward, meeting a pair of dark corduroys, worn at the knees, an overlarge, Seattle Mariners sweater with ten tiny, chapped-looking fingers peaking out the edge of the sleeves, slim little shoulders pulled down by the straps of a plain backpack, a pale face, small pink mouth, and huge brown eyes. He knew those eyes.

He knew those eyes, and as he stared into them, suddenly he roiled, his body trying to wrench itself forward a little, nausea and something else forcing its way up his throat. His mind caved briefly, overcome with emotions that threw open the door to his physical pain, and made him want to yell and sing at the same time. His limbs wouldn't obey him, and his claws dug into the ground, trying to find purchase, while his heart banged on his ribs, like a prisoner rattling the bars of a cell. The pain was too much, _something_ was too much, _everything_ was too much, and he whimpered as the uncontrollable feeling of whatever it was rolled over him in merciless, unstopping waves.

Through it all, a name floated to the top of his consciousness and clung there, refusing to be drowned up again in all turmoil rioting in his sub-conscious below.

_Bella._ He remembered. Little Isabella Swan.

Everything left him in a backward-sucking rush, like water swirling down a drain pipe, and the head he'd managed to raise became to heavy for his tired neck, and fell back to the ground with a soft thud. He lay there panting, eyes reduced to slits, and found himself fixated again on those ridiculous, tiny, flashing shoes.

Jacob had an odd thought; _I'm going to remember those little red panels until the day that I die._


	2. Only The Young

AN: Thanks to those of you who have left reviews. I really appreciate the feedback. Just thought I should mention, despite the rating, this isn't a quick gratification story. There will be lemons, but not until much later. Bella is 10 at this point, and needs time to grow. There will probably also be some swearing and some violence, but I can promise drama, humor, fluff, and a story worth reading. Read on if you're still interested. Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy!

**Only The Young**

_Run._

That was her first thought. Immediately on the heals of that one, however, came the next:

_No, don't run. That is is a huge, _huge_ wolf probably with huge, HUGE teeth, and it's probably going to chase me down and eat me. Maybe if I turn around and walk way quietly, I'll get really, really lucky, and it wont see me. It's possible, right?  
_

But then a third thought crept in and timidly made itself known.

_It looks so sad..._

It looked more than sad. If it wasn't for the steady, painful looking rise and fall of the barrel-like rib cage, Bella might have thought it was dead. Blood was matted in it's fur and caked on it's legs and tail, and more still was gushing languidly from a number of vicious looking gashes in its sides and back. Maybe it had been in a fight, or gotten attacked? Bella tried not to think about the size of the beast that could put a dent in this creature. It smelled like dirt, blood, smoke: distant, primal things. And yet, despite the fear and the clench of sickness in her stomach at the site of all the red, Bella felt pity for the animal in front of her. How much blood could a wolf's body, even an unbelievably gigantic wolf's body, hold anyway? It wasn't dead now, but if it kept bleeding like that, would it be? Maybe it had been attacked by another giant wolf. It's whole body was slumped, and its ears flicked listlessly. It must have known she was there- wolves could smell things like that, couldn't they?- but it never moved. The very droop of its tail made it look depressed and broken. Was it going to die here all alone?

Bella shifted uncertainly from foot to foot as these thoughts passed through her head. _Walk away_. The voice from before said. But for some reason she just coun't bring herself to do it.

Then the great, brown eyes slowly opened, and the wolf looked up. All thoughts of leaving vanished immediately. Bella felt herself hold her breath, and she slowly counted to ten as it looked at her. Its eyes locked her in a small forever before its gaze released, and it dropped its head with a barely discernibly whine. Her thought all came to a stop, and Bella didn't stop to questioned the new ones that came to take their place. She could never explain the decision she made then to herself later. She was young, and the expression in the wolfs eyes seemed so sad, so real, so somehow _human_, and so lonely, that thoughts of running were replaced almost instantly with thoughts of wanting to comfort and help. With the decisiveness that only a very young person who has never learned about second-guessing can maintain, Bella made up her mind. She would stay. She would help. The only question was _how?_

Moving carefully, as if she thought she could spook it, Bells knelt and unslung her backpack to rummage inside. Her fingers found what she had been searching for when they came in contact with smooth plastic: a half empty soda bottle, slightly sticky from a lunchtime spill. The wolf hadn't moved again, but she could feel the weight of its gaze resting on her, following her. Oddly, she didn't feel frightened, but almost comforted by its continued presence. She didn't bother to think too much about it. She dumped what was left of the soda, knelt next to the the small creek that bubbled between them in its shallow bed, rinsed the bottle, and filled it with tepid water. Taking a deep breath and holding it, she slowly began her approach.

"Um..." she hazarded, suddenly feeling a little foolish. "Hey, wolf?"

Jacob honestly could not believe she was still here. Had he been physically able to move, sheer incredulity would probably have prevented it. Even his own father had trouble hiding the apprehension, almost the fear, he felt on the half-a-dozen times he had seen Jacob in his wolf form. But this little girl was just standing there staring, her breathing practically normal, her pulse a little faster than average, but just barely. He was a two-ton wolf, for crying out loud, with six-inch-claws and teeth like razors, and here he was lying here in pool of blood after having been mauled by a vampire, and she _wasn't running._ She didn't even have the decency to scream, or hyperventilate. The only sign of consternation displayed was the way she was gnawing absently on her bottm lip. He watched in bemused fascination as she pawed through her backpack, emerged with the bottle, emptied it and filled it with water. Fascination turned to outright shock as, with a look of determination that was almost comical on her tiny face, she approached him, holding the bottle like it was a surgical implement.

"Um... Hey, wolf?" she said, cautiously coming closer. He was stunned, but stayed carefully still, not wanting to scare her. "I hope you don't mind, but, uh..." She seemed at a loss for something to say, and waved the bottle in front of his eyes absently, as if to help make her point. Her bottom lip was still suffering between her teeth. "I want to, um, maybe, help you." She blushed. "Get better, I mean. I don't have bandages, or anything, but I was thinking, you know, maybe, if I was the wounds out, you wont get sick, so, um... please don't eat me, okay?" Her faltering little speech ended on a squeak, and her face had gone so red she almost matched his fur. She seemed more embarrassed than scared. After a pause, Bella seemed to take his lack of movement for consent, and stepped to the rear of his body, moving briefly out of his line of sight. He held back a grunt of pain as he felt water splash and sting against his wounds.

In spite of the situation, Jacob was hugely impressed. He had never seen anyone do something so stupidly, selflessly, brave. This tiny little girl had giant, brass, balls. The water was probably good for nothing- if his werewolf healing abilities couldn't pull him out of this, he seriously doubted that a few splashes of creek water would- but her small face looked so determined that he probably wouldn't have stopped her even had he been able to. Despite his injuries, he wanted to smile. Bella was adorable.

He was thinking more clearly now, and he couldn't believe he hadn't known it was her sooner. He had known Bella her whole life. Her father, Charlie, was his own Dad's best fishing buddy. Their mothers had been good friends, before his had passed away. He had seen her at any number of family gatherings, and been roped into babysitting her more than once, when their parents were busy. He had even helped her learn how to ride her bike one afternoon when they were stuck together, and he couldn't find anything better to do. But he was six years older than her. He had never really paid her any attention: she had always just been there. For the first time, he found himself really _noticing_ her. He had never been so fascinated by another human being in his life. After all, how often do you meet the good summaritan who goes out of their way to help the big, bad, wolf instead of immediately calling up the wood cutter?

Eventually, her trips to the little creak ceased, and she plunked herself onto the leaves, a few feet from his face. She folded her legs indian style and looked at him curiously. He stared at her right back, wondering what was going through her head. He could almost see the wheels turning behind her wide eyes. Finally, her little head cocked, and she said:

"Hey wolf? Are you thirsty?" She purposefully shook the water bottle. His ears twitched incredulously.

_She wants to personally pour water down the muzzle of a wolf with a mouth the puts Jaws to shame. Maybe the next time we have a family get-together I'll pull her aside and have a talk with her about the importance of having a survival instinct._

Bella trudged home, the light-up sneakers that had been a Christmas present from some distant aunt, who obviously didn't know her very well, squelching in the thick loam. She had only left the clearing when raindrops had begun to plunk down on her cheeks and nose. Hopefully she would make it home before the storm really set in. Bella felt bad about having to leave the wolf there, alone and injured, but even though she hadn't been able to do much, she felt a warm glow of satisfaction as she considered what she had been able to do. She'd at least help him get something to drink. She giggled as she remembered the disgruntled impression she got from the wolf as she tried to help a creature without lips drink from a bottle. Then she bit her lip as she recalled the size of his fangs. But, he had never made any move to hurt her; never showed the slightest sign of wanting to eat her, not even when she had practically put both hands in his mouth. Away from the hypnotic influence of the wolfs eyes, Bells began to feel almost light-headed as she thought of the audacity of what she had done. But, she didn't regret it. It had felt right, and Bella couldn't bring herself to question that feeling of rightness.

_Tomorrow I'll have to bring a mixing bowl or something for him to drink from. I think it's a him. Feels like a him. Some food, too. If he can't move, he can't hunt. I wonder how much a wolf that big eats? I hope I can sneak away after school tomorrow..._

Suddenly Bella stopped. Tomorrow. Would the wolf still be there tomorrow? Surely, if it got well enough to move, it would go in out of the rain. It was a wild creature, after all. There was no good reason for it to hang out there all night and day. Today was the last time she'd probably ever see it. Feeling unexpected tears begin to sting her eyes, Bella bit her lip and turned her face up to the grey Forks sky.

_Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and think I just dreamed it..._

With a mournful sigh, Bella trudged home.

The next day passed painfully. Bella had slept fitfully, and found herself dozing off in class, until the teacher yelled at her. That had ever happened before, and it almost made her cry. She spilled paint down someone else's back in art class and had three near collisions in the hallways with kids bigger than she was because she couldn't pull her head out of the clouds. Finally, the day had ended, and Bella had launched herself of the school bus, dusted her stinging palms off from where she had hit the pavement with a little to much force, bounded into her house and grabbed an industrial sized mixing bowl, the sliced deli ham that Renee had bought at the supermarket earlier in the week, and, after some hesitation, half a package of stale cookies. She bundled it awkwardly in her backpack after dumping her school supplies recklessly onto the kitchen table, and shot off into the woods. The closer she got to the clearing in the woods, the slower her feet seemed to go. Anxiety was weighing at her, making her palms sweat and her lips pull into a frown. She didn't know why it meant so much to her, but she was praying to see him again.

_Please, let him be there, please, oh please, oh please..._

When she heard the muted sound of running water from the creek, she took a deep breath, stepped into the open space, and cautiously opened her clenched eyes. Slowly, a warm smile took over her face, and it felt like light flowing up from deep inside. She stepped eagerly forward.

"Hey, Wolf!"


	3. Big Brother

_AN: Somehow, this one ended up more than twice as long as the other chapters. I had a lot I wanted to cover. Hope it doesn't wear you out. Family drama and fluff ahead. I'd really appreciate feedback on how believable this situation feels. Let me know if it's at all convincing, or if I need to work on my characters some more. Thanks. ~Fu_

**Big Brother**

Bella curled up into the warm heat behind her and turned her face into the fresh breeze, for the moment completely content with life. The wolf was resting with his head on his paws behind her, ears occasionally twitching, his injuries having cleared up at a rate that had astonished her at first. It had seemed unnatural until she stopped to consider the fact that, since he was a wolf the size of an SUV that could understand human language and respond, unnatural things were probably natural to him anyway. Having logically thought the matter out, Bella forgot all about it, and didn't let it bother her again. It had been a good two weeks since they had first met, and Bella hadn't able to let a day go by that she didn't sneak into the woods to visit her wolf.

She had discovered that he could understand English on their very second meeting, when she'd been so overcome with joy at seeing him again that she'd leaped on him and thrown her arms around his giant neck for a hug. She hadn't wanted to believe that he wouldn't be there, but she'd been so afraid to hope. After about two seconds of being buried in his hot fur it had occurred to her that a) considering the damage she'd seen on him yesterday, throwing herself on him like that was probably hurting him, and b) wild animals typically didn't take well to being hugged by crazy litle human girls. She didn't feel threatened by him, but she also hadn't forgotten the size of his fangs. The wolf hadn't moved since she'd tackle-hugged him, but she sprang back anyway, her face flaming in embarrassment.

"Oh my gosh, I totally forgot you were injured. I'm so, so sorry! I didn't hurt you, did I? I didn't mean to..." Her voice drifted off as she stood up to examine the wolf's flanks, and found the damage astronomically less fearful than she remembered. The blood was gone, and while there were places where new, pink scar-tissue was showing through his coat, it looked like the fur was already growing back over it. She looked back into the eyes of the wolf. He was watching her, unmistakably amused.

"Wow." She said, her voice sightly awed. "I really_ didn't_ hurt you did I?" There was a pause, and then the wolf gave what was, without a doubt, a shake of the head. Bella gasped.

"You can understand me, can't you?" This time, she got a nod. The wolf was watching her carefully. There was a silence of several seconds as the ten year old mulled over this new development. Then she beamed.

"I knew you were too cool to be a normal wolf!" She crowed in the voice of one who has had their most awesome suspicions confirmed. The wolf had just rolled his tongue out at her in a wolfish form of laughter.

He was doing it again now. Bella rolled against his completely recovered flank and reached out to scratch familiarly between his ears. His huge, dark eyes closed, and he gave a low, grumbling purr of contentment. It sounded like a diesel engine turning over, and she giggled. He gave her a knowing look, and the rumbling stopped. Bella kicked at the plastic wrap on the ground near her bag, the remnants of today's offering to her wolf's insatiable stomach. It had once contained the better part of a loaf of bread, and some apples. Bella had discovered the immense entertainment value of throwing things in the air and watching him snatch them unerringly from midflight with a snap of his jaws. When he was in a hurry, his movements were fast like lightning strikes. But she felt so safe with him it didn't even occur to her to be concerned. She could tell just by touching his body how powerful he was, but he always acted completely tame around her. They'd already developed a system for their visits. She would launch of the school bus, purloin a snack for him from her unsuspecting parent's kitchen, and hightail it out the back door and to their clearing as fast as her little legs could carry her. His ears would perk, and his tail would twitch in greeting; he has far too much dignity to actually wave it for her. They would share a snack, and then Bella would talk to him. She knew he was listening, that he understood, that he cared, even if he couldn't talk back, and it didn't take long until she'd opened up completely. Bella felt like she could tell him anything. Sometimes she would read to him. Every now and then, the book would slip from her fingers, and she would fall asleep, and he would curl his canine body around her, and keep her safe from harm. Bella never felt as happy anywhere else as she felt there. Unfortunately, today couldn't be one of those blissful, nothing days. She stretched, and smiled fondly at her wolf.

"I have to go soon. My parents are meeting some people for dinner, and they say I have to go." Bella was learning to read the expression in his deep eyes. Right now, she thought he was feeling a mix of curiosity and disappointment. She sighed. "I know." she moaned sympathetically. "The blacks are nice, but the Clearwaters are coming too, and Leah's mean to me sometimes. Seth is alright, but he's always stuck to his game thingy, and Jacob's nice, but he's too old to play with." The wolf's ears were perked forward intently, and he gave a soft, short, bark. "Yeah, I guess." She said reluctantly. "But, I'd still rather stay with you."

He laughed at her again, his tongue lolling out and his breath coming in soft pants. He nudged her, leaving a wet mark with his nose that covered most of her cheek.

"Eeeewww." She giggled. He barked again. Bella started to gather her things, remarking; "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to get rid of me." He bumped her playfully with his head, nearly landing her on her butt. "No fair!" she laughed. Then he bright face dlouded briefly. "I really have to go now, though. They fight enough as it is. I don't want it to be over me."

She swung on her backpack and watched his get to his feet, stretching the kinks out of his muscles with a cat-like arch of his back, teeth displayed in a jaw cracking yawn. It was admittedly an intimidating sight, but she just grinned and reached her hand up, standing on her toes. Her lowered his head obediently, so that she could scratch behind his ears. She leaned her face against his muzzle, and hugged as much of him as she could reach. She felt like she had found the best friend in the world.

"See you tomorrow, Wolf."

Bella kept her eyes lowered, fixed on her plate as she listlessly shuffled food around with her fork. Jacob was sure she hadn't eaten more then three bites since they'd all taken seats at the table. He had expected things between the Swans to be a little tense right now, from the way that Bella had been talking, but good God. Saying that the atmosphere was oppressive would've been like saying a mountain was a little on the heavy side.

Billy had tried. He had chit-chatted steadily for the first ten minutes or so, trying to draw in Charlie with sports scores, and baiting Renee with talk of plans to turn the local community center into a strip mall, just to start some playful banter. He had been met with forced joviality by the former and clipped bitchiness by the latter, and had given it up after an awkward throat clear or two. Charlie looked like his jaw was aching from being permanently clenched, and Renee's eyes were bloodshot, her face splotchy under a fresh application of makeup. Bella had been quiet and withdrawn, even compared to her usual self when surrounded by her elders, and Jacob's welcoming grin had fallen right off his face when he'd seen her slink in the door behind her parents, take a seat on the couch, and immediately try to fade into the upholstery. Father and son, sharing a rare moment of total communion, had exchanged looks. This little family get together was not destined to be a fun night. Whatever spat they'd had before they got here, it had clearly been one to raise the roof, and Bella had apparently gotten caught in the middle. Jacob wondered if it had been because she has stayed out too late in the woods with him, like she had been worried about. He really hoped it hadn't.

Jacob found himself wishing like hell that the Clearwaters would show up already. A few more people, while they probably wouldn't defuse the tension, might at least spread it out a bit so that it wouldn't be concentrated so strongly over the five at the kitchen table. He found himself wishing someone would just say something already: ever since he'd become a werewolf, he could put food away like a trash compactor, but even though he had been starving while Billy was cooking, this persistent silence was killing even his appetite. But more than anything, he wished that Bella would raise her head and drop that forlorn, beat-down look from her tiny face. He glanced around the solemn circle and felt his eyes drawn, like magnets, back to her sorrowful little frame one more time. He caught the soft thump as the rubber sole of her sneaker hit the scuffed legs of the chair once in a hopeless sort of way. Jacob decided that he had had enough. He stood up.

Billy raised his eyebrows in what, to Jacob, was a very expressive way, but all he said was: "Something wrong, son?"

"Nothing wrong with me." Jacob answered nonchalantly, careful not to put any stress on the last word. "I just figured that, since I'm done, and I think Bella is, too, I'd take her out and show her the rabbit. Get us out of you old folks' hair. I'm sure you guys would love to talk about your AARP applications." Billy glared at his son, clearly irritated as he glanced across the table at the two other adults, both of whom were sitting there, gripping their forks as if someone had told them a bomb would go off if they let them go. Then his eyes darted quickly to Bella, who's head had finally raised upon hearing her own name, and then went back to Jacob, the expression in them subtly softening.

"You're going to the garage?"

Jacob rolled his eyes like any good teenager would. "No, dad, I left my car parked in my bedroom." Billy looked unimpressed with his son's display of sarcasm. He grunted.

"Don't let her trip on any of that crap you and your friends never pick up off the floor."

"No, sir." He gave his father a mocking salute, and turned to Bella. The look on her face nearly killed him. She was biting her bottom lip again, her expression clearly torn between not wanting to disappoint her parents, and desperately wanting to run from the room. The icy silence coming from the other side of the table obviously wasn't giving her anything to go by, and when she finally turned to him her look was pleading. She was so easy to read that her open vulnerability made him wince. Being that unguarded was like holding up a "Kick Me" sign to the world. Not trusting himself to look at the other side of the table, where several uncomfortable seconds were gathering together to hold a convention, Jacob folded his body down to her height, and gave her his best smile. He couldn't look at her parents; he could feel his anger growing and he didn't trust what his own reaction would be. So he purposefully ignored them and took a deep breath. "Whaddya say, honey? I'm rebuilding my car from scratch. You might learn something, if you can keep your nose out of those books for a few minutes."

"I..." she began doubtingly. Then she glanced around again and didn't see to see any better options. Her shoulders slumped a little, and she took his outstretched hand. He tugged gently until she hopped off her chair,and then her put a hand around her shoulders, guiding her softly but inexorably to the door. He only chanced one look at the three adults still sitting at the table. They were all staring at him, uniformly silent. Bella's parents' faces were like carved blocks of wood. His own father's expression was impassive, but there was something about the twist of his lips that made Jacob think he looked almost speculative. Jacob nodded to Charlie and Renee, the reproach in his voice almost, _almost,_ too faint to be noticed.

"Ma'am. Chief." Then he turned around, pushing Bella firmly in front of him, and went through the door. It snapped closed behind him with a rusty squeak.

Jacob let his shoulders slump, tension flowing out of him. He became aware again that he still had hold of Bella's minuscule shoulders, and that the entirety of her attention was focused on him. He could feel it like a searchlight, even with his eyes closed. But then she sighed, and the feeling faded, her attention re-centering on the closed screen behind them. Silence was still billowing out like echoes in a cave. He cleared his throat, suddenly feeling awkward. _Jacob Black, shining Knight extraordinaire._ He thought with irony. _Congratulations, you've succesfully saved the maiden from the dragon's lair. Now what do you do with her?_

"Garage is this way, honey." He smiled, but her head was down once more, her long hair framing her face, and it didn't look like she was going to answer him anytime soon. Jacob sighed sympathetically, and towed her along behind him in the direction of the shed in his backyard. When they reached the shelter of the little wooden hut, he picked her up without really thinking about it, carried her carefully over the scattered scrap and tools, and tucked her gently into the backseat of the rabbit. The door was currently missing, so he could keep an eye on her, and make sure she was safe while he worked, without having her feel trapped. She curled up, bringing her knees to her chest, and watched him without seeming to really see. He talked to her, although he never said anything very important. He chatted make about about his car, his dad, his school. He even told her the PG-13 version of the story of Quil vs. The Pinball Machine at the bowling alley. She didn't talk back, and he didn't really expect her to. He just figured that she had probably had enough silence to last her for a while.

Jacob knew about loosing family. His own mother had died when he was so young that he wasn't sure if the memories he had of her were real, or just figments that his imagination had cobbled together from stories and photographs. But he remembered the pain from her passing, because it was the kind of pain that had dripped off his father and sisters and sunk deep into the floor boards of their little house, and never went away. When Jacob was in a bad mood, he swore that he could stand in the living room and smell the grief rising from the floor, like the scent from a stain that never faded. Privately, he theorized that this was why his sisters had high-tailed it out of there as soon as they were legally able. Jacob new that would never be an option for him. He had responsibilities. But, his families collapse had been accidental, involuntary, just another drunken mistake on a dark road one night. Bella's family was collapsing from the inside out, Renee and Charlie spitting at the seams and pulling Bella to pieces in the process. He wondered what was the worse way to loose a parent: death, or having one of them pick up and walk out of your life forever. Sure, with the second option there was always the possibility of them coming back, but at least with the first, you had an iron-clad excuse for why they didn't.

After a while, Jacob looked at the clock, and realized that it was approaching 9pm. He would have to take her back inside soon, and she'd barely moved in the last two hours. He suddenly felt like a failure. He'd had her out here all this time, and what exactly had he done to make her feel better? He's prattled on about German chassis while she had stewed in familial pain, and he had let her. For what she had done for him, he owed her. Just knowing that here was one person in the world who didn't see the wolf and treat him as the monster he sometimes felt like was a saving grace for his sanity. When she'd managed to get water down his throat for the first time when he'd been lying there bleeding, he was sure that, had he been human, he would've cried. She hadn't actually alleviated much of his thirst: he'd drug himself painfully to the edge of the creek and taken care of that himself later on. It was simply that it had been so long since anyone had tried to take care of him, he'd almost forgotten what it felt like. With his mother gone, and his father wheelchair bound, Jacob was usually on the giving end when it came to taking care of people. And somehow, her selfless worry for him seemed so much more significant now, when he realized that, young as she was, she had problems of her own, and had still taken time to help him. In a peculiar way, her continued willingness to be with his wolf was saving him, and he wanted to return the favor. Obviously, however, he sucked at it. Feeling like scum for failing her, he approached her almost guiltily, only to find her intense gazed locked unerringly onto him. He crouched down in front of her so he could match her eye level.

"How ya feeling, Bells?" 

"Like crap." She answered, with a wan little smile.

He smiled at her. "Watch your mouth, young lady." Gently, he tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, and, abruptly, she slumped like a wilting flower, her forehead falling against his shoulder. He carefully slid his arms around her tiny back. "Bells? Are you alright?"

She drew in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "Thanks for getting me out of there, Jake. I don't know what to do sometimes. I want them to be happy, but they aren't, and I feel like it's my fault."

Jacob was surprised he could control his voice so well with the flood of emotions that were rising up inside him. He somehow managed to sound calm and collected as he said: "Why would you say something like that, honey? You know it's not true."

She huffed. "I might be a kid, but I'm not stupid, Jake. I know my parents only got married cause mom got pregnant. If they hadn't had me, they wouldn't be stuck like this. Mom would be off doing all the things she wants to do, and dad would've found someone he can go fishing with, or something. You saw them. They're like this all the time, except sometimes it's worse." He voice had started out indignant but the words were coming faster now, spilling out, and he could tell she was only a breath away from crying. "If I hadn't been born, it wouldn't be like this. If they didn't have me, they could've divorced and been happy a long time ago. If I hadn't-"

Jacob had to stop her. If he didn't stop her, he'd phase right there. If he didn't stop her, he'd run in the house scream bloody murder at her parents for doing this to her, for letting her feel neglected enough for these thoughts to enter her head, even if they hadn't meant to. He was already shaking slightly, but he breathed deep, and pulled himself in. She was gasping against his shoulder now, her little fingers curled into the collar of his shirt, whimpering as she tried desperately not to cry. He had to pull it together. For her.

"Bella." He caught her face in both hands, and looked straight into her eyes. She didn't want to. He made her. "Bells, don't ever, _ever,_ say those things again. Don't even think them. They're not true, and it would kill your parents to hear you say that. It's killing _me_ to hear you say that. Charlie and Renee might have made some mistakes, but I promise that you weren't one of them. They made mistakes with each other, but I'm willing to be that both of them would go through it all again, just to make sure they could have you. Don't you know that, you goof?"

She was squirming now, her brown eyes spilling tears onto his fingers. "I," she choked out. "I know that. I do. It just, it hurts sometimes..." He attempt at brave understatement ended in a strangled little sob, but he shushed her. He was going to let her cry, because clearly, she needed someone to cry on. He just had one thing he had to say first.

"Bella, listen to me." He spoke with staring straight into her eyes. He didn't know a whole lot about life, but, to his surprise, he found he knew exactly what to tell her. His words were slow and distinct as he said:

"No matter what, never, ever, blame yourself for something that isn't your fault."

She was still staring at him, her eyes wide and teary, and he could practically see her absorbing his words, letting them imprint in her mind. She shuddered, nodded, and whispered softly, "OK."

He smiled gently at her again. "You can cry now, if you want to." She crumpled gratefully against him, and bawled for a solid half-hour. He sat on the ground, pulled her into his lap, and just let her go. Even though she was crying, he felt like he'd finally done something right. After a while, the increase in sniffling told him that she was winding down, and he offered her an old oil rag to blow her nose on, along with an apologetic glance for it not being cleaner. She didn't seem to mind.

"Thanks Jake." She was twisting the dirty cloth in her hands, her voice stuffy. "I needed that."

"Anytime, Bells. I've got a couple older sisters, you know. I got used to being dumped on." He commented, trying to lighten the mood a little. It seemed to work, because she giggled. But, after only a moment, she sighed, and snuggled into him without seeming to think about it. She burrowed into his chest the same way she'd burrowed into his fur as a wolf, and he felt somehow moved. He pushed away longing thoughts of her scratching his ears. Now was not the time. He voice was muffled as she spoke again.

"...Must be nice to have siblings. Guess I'll never know about that. It's not like Charlie and Renee-" Jake absently noted that she hadn't called them mom and dad. "-are going to have another kid."

Jake raised an eyebrow. "Did you want a brother or a sister?" He found himself genuinely curious, as an idea started to from in the back of his head. She thought about it.

"If it was younger, I guess it wouldn't matter. I could help take care of them, you know? But, sometimes I wish I had an older brother. I'd feel safer." Suddenly, she seemed shy, shifting in his lap like she was just now noticing she was there. "I mean, I don't feel like I'm in danger or anything now, but... It'd be nice to have someone to look after me, I guess." She concluded, wistfully.

"An older brother, huh?" He tried to keep his voice gravely serious, as if he was about to make a business proposal, but he found himself beaming. What he was about to say felt so right he didn't stop to consider if it was ridiculous or not. "Are you taking volunteers? I've never had a little sister. I might not mind keeping you out of trouble for a little while." He chuckled and winked at her as her head whipped up.

"Really?" She asked. Her eyes glowed like stars, and when he solemnly crossed his heart and smiled, they practically lt up with happiness. What was more, she looked so thankful that her gratitude made him feel like he had just saved a truck load of babies from a burning building. When her father came to fetch her some twenty minutes later he found them laughing, Bella snorting coke out her nose and gasping in pain between giggles from something Jake had said. He stared at them with open astonishment, and even though the levity died down pretty quickly when they noticed him there, Jacob saw Bella off at the end of the night with a smile on her face. The last thing she'd said to him as she gave him a goodbye squeeze around the waist was pitched too low for anybody else to pick up on, but Jacob caught it loud and clear.

"Goodnight, Big Brother."


	4. From the Forge

AN: Thanks so much to those of you who have reviewed, and/or put this story on alert! It means a lot to me to know that someone out there is enjoying this. By the way, the book mentioned in this chapter is a real childhood classic. I highly recommend it, even for adults. It's a lovely story. If you've got questions, critiques, or comments, please don't hesitate to review! Enjoy chapter four!

**From the Forge**

That fall, just after her birthday, Bella's teachers noticed a difference in her. She seemed happier. She smiled more, although it was usually at some private joke. She even seemed more willing to play with other children when approached, although she didn't seek them out. She had always been a fairly solitary child, and that still seemed to be the case, but something in her life certainly seemed to have changed for the better. In a town as small as Forks, the domestic situation in the Chief of Police's household was an ill-kept secret at best. There was no pin-pointable reason for the way she suddenly glowed. The staff at Forks Elementary just could not think of what could be having this effect. It was unsettling.

A confused 5th grade teacher confronted the little girl about it, asking if there was anything she wanted to talk about.

Bella didn't understand what the question meant, and asked her new Big Brother what she should say.

He laughed and told her to tell the teacher to: "Buzz off. There kids out there failing math, and she's worried because you're too_ happy?_ Work on your priorities, woman!"

Bella had dutifully gone to school and repeated this response to her shocked teacher almost verbatim.

She got a timeout and a note sent home to Renee, but the teacher didn't ask any more questions.

In the winter, the air turned cold, but that didn't stop Bella from going to see her wolf. She trundled through the snow, wrapped up to her ears, teeth chattering, breath white in the crisp air, but she never failed to smile joyously when he wolf came into view, and she could cuddle in his warm, reddish fur.

She brought him hot chocolate. She drank from a mug. He drank from a large steel mixing bowl. Sometimes he burned his tongue, but he never turned it down.

One day in spring, Bella trotted from her father's police cruiser into Jacob's garage, and as he swept her into a welcoming bear hug, and she laughed, he noticed something.

"Bells, did you get new shoes?"

"Yep!" she chirped proudly. "The other ones were getting worn out, so mom took me shopping. Aren't they cool?"

Her new sneakers were shiny; plain white with a blue design. They were practical and sturdy looking. Jacob eyes them critically.

"What happened to the sparkly, light-up ones?"

"i pitched 'em." Bella rummaged through the paper bag by the door and came up with a soda. Popping the top, she looked at him and said, "What?"

Jacob smiled sadly. "Nothing, honey." he answered with a smile.

But on trash day, he mourned those shoes.

In summer, the wolf led her far into the woods, her fingers tangled in his fur for comfort, and to make sure she wouldn't trip and fall. She followed him unquestioningly, although she pouted a little because he wouldn't let her ride him. She had begged, but he didn't trust her to not let herself get swept off his back by a low hanging branch. They reached a stream, deep enough for her to swim, and him to wade, and they played.

The wolf stopped her from eating some mystery berries her curiosity had uncovered growing under a bush on the bank.

In retaliation, she'd tried to sneak up on him, leaping from behind in an attempt to push him under the water, but he heard her coming and stepped aside. She hit the water with a shriek and a splash, and he sat there in the stream and laughed as she spluttered to the surface and glared at him.

But later on, Big Brother Jacob took her into the forest and taught her how to sneak without making a sound.

Eventually, then the fall came again.

"Banana?"

Vaguely interested _woof_. Bella quickly peeled it and threw it behind her, all while keeping her eyes focused on the inside of her bag.

"Fried fish? It's from a couple of days ago, but I think it's still good."

Acquiescent _bark_. Bella tossed that over her shoulder as well. There was the sound of jaws snapping.

"Granola bar?"

Indignant huff. He may have been a bottom-less pit as a wolf, but he had standards. Bella crinkled her nose and laughed at him.

"Well, good, because I brought that one for me, anyway. I just wanted to see if you'd go for it. She snickered as the wolf gave her a long look, and then grinned slightly. With the air of a magician pulling the long awaited rabbit from the hat:

"Cherry cobbler?"

The wolf whined eagerly and pulled himself up, tail wagging. Jacob tried not to react that way- he did feel like he had some dignity to maintain, after all- but there were times when he just couldn't help it. Bella had been trying to teach herself how to cook, and while her first few experiments had had both his wolf and his human forms painfully choking down more burnt edges and runny centers than he would like, she had come a long way. He felt his mouth begin to water as she snapped open the Tupperware container, and the sent of sweetened cherries and honeyed crust floated to his nostrils. She had a talent, and even though he had to shove his giant muzzle into a little plastic dish that had clearly not been designed with a werewolf's teeth in mind, as long as she was willing to feed him, he wasn't going to complain. He heard her laugh at him again as he finished up by eagerly sticking his tongue and the container and lapping the juice off of the botom, but Jacob had been taught growing up never to let good food go to waste, and he wasn't about to start now.

The eleven-year-old poked the edges of the now dripping wet container with her tiny, sandled foot, and scrunched up her nose in distaste. "That's really gross, Wolf." He just laughed at her, deliberately letting saliva drip from his extended tongue onto the forest floor. He felt like he was eleven himself sometimes, when he was with her, but he simply could not bring himself to stop teasing her. Her reactions were just so overwhelmingly adorable.

"Eeeeeeewww!" She squealed, but she was laughing even as she did it. "Fine. No more cobbler for you, mister." She unsuccessfully fought a smile as his mouth immediately snapped shut, his ears pressed back submissively, and his stomach hit the ground, a supplicating whine coming from deep in his throat as she was hit with the world's most effective pair of puppy dog eyes. "Well... OK. Maybe next week. But, I get to choose what we read today, and I want to complaints from you, got it?"

The wolf placed both paws together primly in front of his chest, giving her a perfectly spurious look of contrition. She grinned, not at all fooled. Her expression turned suddenly mischievous.

"I found one in the school library I think you'll like." He eyed her suspiciously as she withdrew it from her backpack, carefully cradling it to hide the title and cover art, and grabbed two giant fistfuls of his fur, pulling herself clumsily on top of him. One of her favorite reading spots just happened to be between his shoulder blades. Jacob waited until she'd made it to the apex of his back, and then, carefully and deliberately, rolled. Bella, who had just barely managed to get herself situated, found herself rolling down a furred slope, turning gently at least three times before she landed on the ground with a soft _Oomph!_ she opened her eyes to glare at him, only to find him laughing at her. The little girl turned her nose up.

"Fine. If you don't want to play nice, I guess I'll just go home." She moved to get her things together, in order to keep up the pretense, but she moved quickly, because they'd played this game before, and she knew what happened next. The wolf rose to his full height, and with unhurried precision, reached out and sank his teeth into her backpack, even as she was in the process of scuttling out of the glade. She jerked back midstep, but managed to get as far as pulling her arms out of the straps while still trying to run away, when a huge paw swatted her gently to the ground. He rolled her with his enormous muzzle, growling playfully, while she twisted and howled with laughter, screaming: "No! Bad dog! Bad dog!" Until he finally stopped and simply pinned her with one giant forelimb. He didn't actually apply any pressure, but the weight alone was message enough. She wasn't going anywhere.

"Alright, fine, I'll stay." She sighed, rolling her eyes mockingly as if it was a huge condescension on her part. "Just don't squash me, bigfoot." She pushed at his paw. The wolf looked insufferably smug as he pulled it away.

The little girl picked herself up, dusted herself off, all the while giving him a pointed look, which he cockily ignored, went to retrieve the abandoned book. The mischievous grin from earlier returned as she straightened the pages.

"Look what I found for us today." She said, finally showing him the cover. His eyes widened, and his ears twitched in surprise and amusement. The book was entitled _Julie of the Wolves._

"It's about an Eskimo girl who runs away and lives with the wolves in Alaska. They help her survive, and they're all like family. It's based on a true story, too. Do you think you'll like it?" She snickered wickedly. The wolf gave an amused snort, and nudged her deliberately into his mammoth side. This was another clearly understood signal between them. _Start reading, already._ She stumbled, caught herslef against him, and, still giggling slightly, sank down and started to read.

It was a fairly warm day for Forks, so Jacob didn't need to curl around her and keep her warm with his heat. He just turned his head in her directions, settled his chin on his paws, and listened. He had just finished up a week of Exam Hell in high school, he was patrolling every night until the early morning, and his father's diabetes had taken a turn for the worse. Before, Billy had been able to get himself around with just the aid of a cane, on good days, but more and more he was becoming restricted to the chair. Jacob was fairly resigned to the fact that soon his father would loose the use of his legs altogether, and it wasn't like he couldn't take care of him, but that didn't make the slow deterioration any easier to watch, no matter how brave a face his father put on in front of him. He was permanently exhausted, and lack of sleep, combined with a werewolf's hair-trigger temper, had him lashing out at all the worst moments, and made him a veritable time-bomb at school. The few hours he got with this little girl were his only sanctuary. It didn't matter what they did: being around her was soothing. She was playful and loving and totally non-judgmental, and he desperately needed that kind of unquestioning acceptance in his life right now. So she read, and he listened, soaking up the peace she radiated for him, and hoped to God that she would forgive him when she found out the whole truth about him. He didn't know what he would do without her.

Bella was reading about the Alaskan wolf pack; about alphas, omegas, group members and mates, and how the girl, Julie, had been accepted as a surrogate "puppy" by the pack. Bella's voice drifted off slowly before it finally stopped all together, and she sighed, and turned to look at him. This was that special look she had, the one that said you had 100% of her attention, and it was suddenly trained on him, with all the focus of a laser-light.

"Hey Wolf," She began, her voice soft, and serious, her eyes huge in her face. "Do you have any puppies?" He stared at her, shocked. He was seventeen. He hadn't dared to even go on a date since he'd phased. "Puppies" were the last thing on his mind. He shook his head, and her little mouth pursed in a serious pout. "What about a mate. Do you have one of those?" Eyes wide, he shook his head again. Bella looked doubtingly at the novel in her lap, her finger stuck in the leaves to mark her place, and then stared at him again, a little more sadly this time. The wieght os her gaze pushed down on him, making him think about things he'd rather not think about. "Do you have a pack? Brothers and sisters, like it says in the book?" This time Jacob looked away. That was what stung the most about being a werewolf. All the responsibilities, the secrets, the experience of running and the amazement of smells, it was all totally overpowering and exciting, still, even though it had been over a year, and he had no one to share it with. No one could even come close to understanding what he was dealing with, and at this point, no one else was showing any signs of phasing at all. He felt permanently stuck in lone wolf limbo. It was desperately isolating. He couldn't bare to look at her, and let Bella see that in his eyes. It would only hurt her.

He felt her crawl up his body, and then her little whisper was right behind his head. "Wolf? When you're not with me, are you always alone?" Her breath tickled the soft fur on the inner shell of his ear, and slowly, helplessly, he nodded, still keeping his eyes averted.

And then she was hugging him.

She had a way of holding him: her little biceps would press under his jaw, and her forearms would come up and pull behind his ears. His snout was aimed down, flush against her collar bone and chest, and her fingers wound deliberately in his fur, clutching it tightly. Her pale face was pressed directly to the space between his eyes. She was pressing small kisses there. It was a purposeful attempt at hugging as much of him as she could, trying to pull all the important parts in, as if she could use her own frail little arms to hold him together when he was falling apart. He felt like he was. He felt like _she_ was, and he was so grateful.

"I'll be your family, Wolf. I'll always be there for you."

That night, as he hunted, Jacob howled.


	5. Through The Fire

_AN: Sorry it took a little longer than usual to update. Billy and Quil were giving me serious problems in the chapter. Hope this proves to be worth the wait. To quickly address a few reviewer questions:_

_1. There will be other wolves. They're coming, but circumstances are going to be decidedly different than what's described in the books. Bets on who wolfs out first?_

_2. Imprinting does play a big part in this story. I don't really like the concept, but it makes one hell of a literary device. As to who might have imprinted on who, I'm not getting into it until I get to it. That's all I'm gonna say for now. Look forward to it. _

_Once again, thank to all who read, reviewed, favorited, alerted, or appreciated this fic in any way. It really makes my day. Have fun with chapter 5!_

**Ch. 5 Through The Fire**_  
_

It was a fall afternoon, and Jacob was hunting. To absolutely no one's surprise, it was raining.

Given the choice, he would've preferred to stay inside and be doing something- _anything-_ other than running around Forks and La Push freezing his paws off in the unseasonably chilly weather, but his father had been dropping hints and trying to start conversations that Jacob would rather avoid more and more often lately. If he stayed in the house there was no telling what heinous subjects his father might try to corner him into discussing.

Just the other night, when Jacob had stumbled through the rusting screen door after wrapping up a patrol at 2am, he'd actually found his father at the kitchen table, whittling with exaggerated nonchalance, as if wood carving was something a normal person often engaged in during the middle of the night. He was getting tiny wood shavings all over his pajamas. Jacob was greeted with cheerful, "Hey, son." but he wasn't fooled. He tried to slink out of the room after grunting a noncommittal response, and had almost made it to the hall way when he was called back by the sound of:

"What's the rush, boy? Why don't you sit down and talk to your old man for a spell?"

Jacob had stared at him incredulously, and although he'd obediently walked back in and hovered over a chair, he didn't actually sit in it.

"Dad, it's the middle of the damn night, I stink, I'm exhausted, and I've got school in-" he glanced at the kitchen clock- _shit! _"Five hours. Do you think we could save father-son bonding time until the morning?"

His father gave him a knowing look that never failed to remind him of the time when he was seven and had been caught with his sister's barbie doll, a pair of hedge clippers, and a guilty look on his face. Even at 18 years, 6'5 feet, and 230 pounds, it still made him squirm.

"Well, I suppose we could, if you were actually in the house and conscious for more than ten minutes at a time."

Jacob had shifted guiltily, but still managed to reply. "Well, maybe that would happen more often if I wasn't stuck transforming into a furry Blade for "the good of the tribe" every second I'm not in school."

"Ah, school. I was hoping you'd be the one to bring that up." Billy smirked. "I know you're busy protecting the people and all, but honestly, our lands aren't all that big. How long does it take you to do a full circuit of La Push? An hour? Two hours, tops? Throw in Forks and that's a good four hours of patrolling, at least, and I understand that doing that every day can take it out of you. But son, you're out there from the time school let's out until near day break every night. Now, I don't know what you're doing out there, but soon you're gonna have to make yourself a harness to take your school stuff with you. This showed up today." Billy materialized an ominous looking piece of paper from the depths of his chair somewhere, and pushed it across the table to his son with a sour expression. Jacob glanced at in once, and grimaced.

Ok, so he'd been a little neglectful of his studies lately. He was naturally good at math, but talent wasn't enough to get you through pre-cal without some application, so he could understand the C- there, and he'd forgotten about that last test in Biology, sure, but a D was the best he'd gotten? He'd managed to scrape a respectable B in English, but only because Bella had ended up reading him most of the books on the senior class syllabus, some of them several times over, and that was the high point of the whole damn report card. Good God, he'd even somehow managed to end up with a C- in PE. He was a freaking werewolf! How was it possible that he was barely passing the one subject that relied on nothing but physical prowess to measure success?

"Err..." He said. Billy raised an eyebrow. Jacob winced.

"Like I said, Jake, I'm not gonna tell you how to carry out your responsibilities, but maybe if you'd take an hour or so away from your "patrol" schedule and spend it hitting the books, I wont have to explain to the rest of the tribe why the future chief flunked out of high school."

Jacob hadn't missed the emphasis his father had put on that one word, and he scowled, but wouldn't meet his eyes. "I don't know what- You know what? Never mind. You're right. I'll study. Sorry." He muttered. "Now, can I please go to bed?"

Billy's raised eyebrow managed to hike itself even further up his forehead. Then, suddenly, appallingly, Jacob saw his father grin. "You don't have to tell me who who she is, if you don't want to son..."

To his horror, Jacob flushed. He opened his mouth to retaliate, realized that nothing he could say would make the situation better, and snapped it shut again. "I'm going to bed." He mumbled, face still burning in shame as his father's laughter followed him down the hall.

Jacob shuddered at the memory. Still, that had been better than the conversation that had occurred only a week later, at the dinner table:

"Found your new project today."

"Mmmm?" Jacob barely glanced up from the food, the movement of his fork temporarily suspended. He was on his fifth microwave dinner, and already contemplating a sixth. He wasn't paying much attention until his father said.

"The cherry wood wolf."

Billy was staring expectantly at him. Jacob swallowed hard to clear his throat of food before he answered. "What about it?" He mumbled.

"It's a pretty good piece, son. What with the fair coming up, I was thinking of getting up a booth with the Clearwaters and Embry's mom and trying to sell some things to the tourist. That one would draw a lot of interest."

"Oh." Jacob turned back to his food. "Sorry, Dad." he shrugged. "That one's not for sale. I can make more if you want, but that one's special for Bella. Her birthday's coming up. She'll be thirteen soon." He continued to shovel his dinner into his mouth at a steady pace until his father' cleared is throat heavily, distracting him. When he glanced up, saw the expression on Billy's face, sighed and put his fork down.

"What?" he snapped.

"A wolf, Jacob? For a twelve-year-old-girl?" He raised one eyebrow in amusement. Jacob just shrugged and tried to look casual.

"I offered to carve her something. She's the one who asked for a wolf."

"Really?" His father drawled. "Interesting. You know, son, when I said I _girl_ I was thinking one who'd at least made it past puberty..."

"Dad!" He choked, his temper flaring. _"It's not like that!"_ He snarled viciously.

"Never said it was, Jake, but it's true isn't it? That girl knows about the wolf?"

Jaw clenching, Jacob growled. "She doesn't know _anything,_ not really. I... She... She just likes the wolf, and it... It helps." Jacob didn't comment further, but Billy knew him well, and he didn't miss the caged look in his eyes.

"Jake," He sighed again, his tone becoming serious once more. "You need to be careful, son. She's just a little girl-"

"I just told you, She doesn't know anything, Dad!" Jacob snarled. "I haven't 'betrayed the tribe's secrets,' Or some shit like that." His eyes were narrowed, and his breath came in huffs.

"That's not what I was saying, Jake. I just want you to be careful is all. You've got a lot of control, but accidents happen, and I don't want to have to explain to my good friend, the police chief, why his daughter was found bleeding in the forest by my son."

"That wont happen." He snarled. His fierce scowl told Billy that pushing the subject any further tonight wouldn't get him anywhere.

"Alright." He relented. "Get some sleep, Jacob. You need it." He nodded wordlessly, and pushed himself to his feet.

"Jake..." His son paused on his way out the door. "She's your responsibility now, too. Take care of her."

If Jacob thought this parting shot was strange, he didn't show it. Instead he just nodded, dumped the rest of his meal, and, irritation beating out hunger for the moment, loped out the back door to phase.

But even that little gem was nothing compared to the blow-up that had happened just two nights ago. Jacob wince a little at the recollection. He should know better than to let his temper get the best of him like that, but a small argument with his father had just kept building and building until he couldn't take it any more. He's slapped his palm down on the table hard, making the wood give an ominous creaking groan, and shouted:

"Dad, I haven't found any traces of vampire for over half a fucking year! How long am I going to have to keep this up!"

Billy was sympathetic, although his tone of voice didn't really show it. "Jake, I know how hard this is on you, but we've been through this. Someday, others of the tribe are going to phase, and when that happens, they're going to need a leader. It's destiny, son-"

"Screw destiny!" Jacob exploded, his fist smashing against the table again. It bucked noticeably. He threw his hands in the air as he continued. "I don't want this, Dad! I want to be normal again. It's been years, and no one else has been cursed like this. And you know what? I'm glad! I wouldn't wish this shit on anyone! There are no vampires here, Dad! There's no lonely little wolves looking to me for fucking guidance. I spend every night in fur and paws running around the forrest looking for monsters that aren't there. What kind of destiny is that? What the hell is the point of this, old man?"

By the time Jacob was finished he was gasping, his limbs trembling slightly, but weather from adrenaline or the effort of repressing the wolf, Jacob was't even sure. His father's face was blank when he answered.

"Fine then. Give it up."

"I... what?" Jacob stuttered, completely nonplussed.

"Sure." Said Billy calmly. "If you hate it that much, give it up. Quit. Just don't regret it later when you have to deal with the consequences."

"Consequences? What the hell kind of consequences could be worse than what I'm already dealing with?"

Billy narrowed his eyes at him. "Do you know who's first the list to phase if a threat shows up again?" Billy paused. Jacob swallowed, and tensed. "Quil Ateara. He's got one of the strongest bloodlines, next to Joshua Uley's son, and Henry's boy, and he's of age. If the bloodsuckers come back, there's not a snowball's chance it hell that he won't change. And there's a damn good chance that it could happen to Embry, too. Just because nobody ever proved who his daddy was doesn't mean we don't have some suspicion, and I always though he looked an awful lot like Sam." Jacob was breathing hard now, his eyes intense and his expression twisting as he got his father's point. Billy ploughed on relentlessly. "Destiny isn't haunting just you, Jacob. Your two best friends are in the line of fire, too. Do you remember what it was like for you, the first time you phased? I do. I've never seen anyone so panicked in my entire life. It was hell to watch, son, and I can't even imagine how much worse it would've been to experience personally. So just ask yourself: are you really willing to let Quil and Embry, your two best friends, go through all that alone, the way you did?"

Talk about twisting the knife. Jacob had gripped the edges of the table so hard a chunk actually came off in his hands. He stared at it, his thoughts turned so far inward it was like he didn't even realize it was there. His father's voice, the tone softer now, seemed to come from very far away.

"Jacob, the honest truth is that I can't make this easier for you. I wish I could, but that's not something anyone can do. It's a dirty job, but it's got to be done by somebody, and the spirits chose you. Your people need a protector, and your brothers- who will come- will need a leader. A threat is coming, and if it's taking years for things to develop, it's probably because you need those years to prepare. Things happen for a reason, Jacob. No one promised you easy, and no one promised you fair. There's only the way things are, and the things you choose to do about them."

Jake slumped in the chair, exhaustion helping resignation to sap the fight out of him. "So basically, life sucks, then you die, huh?" He smiled, but there wasn't any humor in it. Billy breathed out sadly.

"Not always, son. Sometimes there's another side to it. Hopefully you'll see it someday." He reached up and patter his son on his massive arm.

Jacob had sighed, let his shoulders slump, and started to walk away. He paused at the doorframe.

"I'll fix the table later."

"I know you will, son."

Stopping briefly, snout pressed to the ground to examine a new scent, Jacob snorted. That day had sucked. And Quil and Embry stopping by the garage later while he was working on an independent commission from the woman next door hadn't improved his mood. Embry had at least offered to help out, while Quil had chosen to steal a soda from the bag by the door and lounge around being a general ass. Jacob had had to restrain himself repeatedly from throwing something at his head.

"Friday night, and here we are again, dicking around with cars instead of women."

Jacob had groaned, and ground his fist into his eyeballs. Embry just looked amused. "Hey man, I had to deal with his shit all day. It's your turn to tell him to shut the hell up."

"You two lame-asses are just jealous, because the ladies can't resist my awesome abs." Quil preened and flexed, strutting around the garage, before his foot caught on a wrench and he nearly took a nose dive to the floor. Jacob just rolled his eyes. Quil put a lot off effort into exercise, and he was decently ripped, but thanks to the werewolf thing, when it came to sheer muscle mass Jacob had him by a good 30 pounds. Embry snorted.

"Just because _one_ girl took pity on your ass, and let you into her pants does not you a ladies man make. I swear to God, the man scores _once_, and it's all he can think about." Jacob just grunted in agreement as he rolled himself out from under his neighbors 1997 Plymouth Neon, trying unsuccessfully to wipe the grease from his hands with a dirty rag.

"That's all you'd think about too, if either of you had enough game to get near a woman." Quil taunted. Sauntering over to Jacob, he threw an arm around his shoulder, despite the fact that he had to reach up to do it anymore. "How 'bout it man? Put a fucking shirt on, and head out with us to the beach tonight. There's a couple parties I know of going down tonight, and we could be scoring some of the loveliest ladies in La push." He cajoled.

"Sorry man," Jacob's lips twitched with a smile, but he tried to sound genuinely regretful. "I'm not really looking for a girl tonight."

"Not even if I told you that Karly Summers was asking about you? She's hot man, and I know where she's hanging out tonight." Quil wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Karly Summers?" Jake frowned. "What, from history class? That girl has never spoken two words to me. No way in hell she asked you about me."

"Actually, it's true, Jake." Embry objected. "I was there. Sounds like she's got a pretty big thing for you."

Jacob stared, trying to remember what, exactly, Karly Summers looked like. All that came to mind was an impression of frizzy hair and the kind of musky perfume that always ensured that he sat on the other side of the room. "Isn't she kinda..." Jacob tried to search for a word that was tasteful, and then decided that, what the hell, it wasn't worth the effort. "...slutty?"

"Only a little." Quil replied, unabashedly. "What's the problem? I'm not saying date her, I'm just saying go talk to the girl. You never know what might happen."

"Sorry, Quil. I'm really not interested." Jacob turned back to the Neon, wondering if changing the filter would solve the problem, or if he'd have to replace the whole unit, when Quil interrupted his thoughts with:

"Dude, are you gay?"

"What?" Jacob spluttered. "NO! What the _hell,_ man!"

"Sorry, sorry," Quill held up his hands placatingly. "It's just that you haven't been on a date in fucking _years,_ man, and you turn down every girl who tries to start something with you. I mean, what are we supposed to think?" Jake turned incredulously to Embry, and to his astonishment, found him nodding. Catching his glare, Embry shrugged defensively.

"Well, it is kind of weird, Jake. Look, just come out with us tonight, and at least _try_ to talk to a girl?"

"Seriously, Jake. Let's get the hell out of here for once. Don't worry, bro, I'll teach you all my moves, and the ladies won't know what hit them."

Embry raised an eyebrow. "Dude, the amount of game you have is inversely proportional to the amount of shit that comes out of your mouth. You know that right?"

"Embry, you are such a nerd that other nerds bow down and call you master. Now shut the hell up about matters that are beyond your comprehension." He turned back to Jacob. "So, come on man. Are you in?"

Jacob sighed. "Look, guys, I really can't. I have to finish this by Thursday. And anyway, Charlie's bringing Bells over tonight and... what?" He hadn't failed to catch the looks on his friends' faces.

"Embry actually looked uncomfortable. "Well, that's the other thing..."

"The other thing?" Jacob just _knew_ he wasn't going to like where this was going.

"What is up with you and that girl?" Quil never beat around the bush. He didn't know enough about tact to be anything but straightforward.

"Nothing is_ up._" Jacob huffed defensively. "I just watch her when her dad comes over to watch the game. You know, keep her out of trouble."

_Liar._ His conscience chided. He shifted uncomfortably on the balls of his feet.

"Whatever, Jake." Quil grumbled. "You wont crawl out of your hole to talk to a girl our age, but you spend hours with that kid. Hell, you spend more time with her than you do us, lately. Whatever happened to bros before hoes, dude?"

Jacob winced, caught Embry's eye, and then quickly turned his face away to hide his own. He knew he hadn't been the kind of friend he should've lately, but it was hard to be around them when he couldn't be completely honest about his life. Half the time it was either keep his mouth shut, or lie, and Jacob got tired of faking.

"Look guys, I'm sorry, I haven't been around much lately, but I've got responsibilities. Billy can't really take care of himself anymore, and I'm not exactly fixing up these scraps of metal for fun. People pay me for this shit, and I've got to help with the bills. I'm stuck here. Hell, even if I had time to go out I'd be too tired to do anything. And as for Bella, well, how many girls our age are gonna come hang out here and not mind that I spend most of my time half under a car? Her dad brings her over, and she's company. Her parents are going through some tough shit, and she's lonely. That's all there is to it, man." He was getting a lot better at mixing the truth and lies together in order to fool the people who knew him best, and the almost contrite look he saw on his friends' faces didn't exactly make him feel any better about it. But he knew he was off the hook when Quil shrugged, a shit-eating grin taking over his face.

"Whatever you say, Black. You just don't want to admit that you're pussy whipped. Oh well, more for us, right Embry?"

Embry's normally reserved face broke into a sly grin. "Hey, if Jake's not interested in Karly, _I_ am. You don't mind if I cut in, do you, man?"

"What? Oh, _hell_ no!" Quil interrupted. "I got dibs on that one!"

"Dibs?" Embry arched an eyebrow. "They're girls, Quil, not fucking lollipops."

The shorter boy got a dreamy look on his face. "How many licks does it take..."

Jacob was shaking his head. "OK, seriously guys, get the hell out of my garage."

"Yeah sure." Quil laughed. "Say hello to the princess for me, will ya? Embry, La Push's finest women await. They're getting lonely, man!"

Embry responded by pushing him out the open garage door. Just before he exited himself, he looked back over his shoulder and said, "Hey Jake?"

"Yeah?"

"You ever need help getting some of this shit done, you know you can just call us right?"

Jacob swallowed, but managed to answer in a voice that at least sounded like his own. "Right. Thanks."

Embry ginned and walked out, following the sounds of Quil's raucous laughter.

Replaying the memory in his head, Jacob paused, canine body temporarily stilling. Quil and Embry were trying, but Jacob wasn't oblivious to the fact that a little distance had grown up between them when the wolf thing happened. He was just honestly clueless on how to fix. The options were to keep lying, and hope like hell that they didn't notice, or tell them the truth, and watch as they hightailed it away from him as fast as humanly possible. Jacob's muzzle wrinkled. That was probably unfair. The three of them had been like brothers since before they could walk. They'd probably still have his back even if they found out about the fact that he could transform into a giant dog, but technically, he wasn't even allowed to tell them. Harry and Old Quil had been pretty adamant about that. The only way they were allowed to be told is if they showed signs of phasing themselves, and as much as he missed his brothers, Jacob wasn't selfish enough to wish this on them if there was even the slightest chance they could escape it.

Having no choices himself was bad enough. He didn't think he'd be able to stand it if it happened to someone he loved.

Rounding the edge of the cliffs overlooking second beach, Jacob decided he'd had enough. The area was clean of any threatening scent as far as he could smell, and he wasn't accomplishing anything except making himself feel worse about things he couldn't change. Longing so strong it was almost blinding rose up inside of him. He missed Bella. He hadn't seen her in two days, in either form, and suddenly he wanted to be with her so badly it was like he couldn't breath. Changing trajectory in mid-stride, he ran for their place; the little covered area in the woods next to the tiny stream where she'd first found him. They didn't always stay there, but that was where they'd always meet, and it was close to the usual time. His body bunched and stretched as he ran, muscles pounding tirelessly against the ground. At that moment, he didn't care if he could talk to her or not: it would be enough, it would be everything he wanted, just to see her face, and hear her call him "Wolf" with affection in her voice.

But, when he nosed aside the undergrowth and stepped into the little clearing, she wasn't there.

She still wasn't there four hours later, and Jacob grew tired of waiting. There had been days before when she hadn't been able to come meet him for some reason of the other. Usually he just went home. Today, however, something inside of him was tugging, pulling, telling him to go find her, that something was wrong, and he had to fix it. He resisted for as long as he could, telling himself that he was being ridiculous, or paranoid, and that there was only so much trouble that the twelve-year-old daughter of the chief of the police could get into anyway, but eventually he lost the battle with himself, and set of towards her house. He didn't plan on knocking on the door, or anything. He just wanted to listen for her; just wanted to see if she was OK.

Crawling through the undergrowth at the edge of the woods the surrounded her house, belly dragging against the loam, Jacob pricked his ears forward, concentrating intently. There were two hearts beating away inside the four walls in front of him, one of them pounding hard and furiously, and the other tapping such a familiar rhythm he felt his jangled nerves soothe instantly. His nostrils twitched: yep, definitely his Bells. She'd been there earlier. He also caught other noises, sounds that weren't exactly easy to place. There was a lot of what seemed to be swishes of fabric, and indistinct mumblings in a voice pitched far too high to belong to her father. The other heartbeat must belong to Renee. Then there was a squeak, a thump, and the sound of a snap catching. It sounded almost like she was ... packing?

A distressed whine escaped his muzzle before he was even aware of it, and almost as if she could hear him, too, a small, pale face appeared in an upper window. Jacob inched closer and raised his head, the whine turning into a rumbling whimper. He was over thirty yards away, and yet he still managed to catch her eye. And that was when he knew.

Bella was not OK, and suddenly, neither was he.


	6. To The Hiss Of Steam

_AN: Somehow, one planned chapter has turned into three. Forgive my lateness, please, the story keeps evolving._

_I'm really loving all the guesses about the plot you guys are making in the reviews. There's been a few I've wanted to answer so badly, but I thought it would take some fun out of figuring out what happens in the actual story if I were to drop any hints. Don't worry, a lot of your questions are going to be answered in the next chapter or so. Thanks again to those who review, and I hope this was worth the wait!_

**Chapter 6: To The Hiss Of Steam**

It hadn't been easy, but she had been desperate. She had fought, whined, cried, screamed, pleaded, and somehow managed to embroil both parents into a shouting match with her that had lasted for most of the night. But, she'd _had_ to make them see that this was where she belonged.

When Bella had found out that her mother was planning on moving away to the sunny state of Florida the second the ink was dry on the divorce papers, she was had sad, but resigned. When she had found out that Renee planned on taking _her_ along as well, she had been horrified. She had turned wide, disbelieving eyes on her father, silently urging him to tell her that it wasn't true, that he wanted her to stay. One look at the disgruntled, almost helpless, expression on his face told her all she needed to know. Her mother could be as strident as a two-year-old when it came to getting her way, and after months of constant bickering and down-and-dirty fighting, Charlie had finally just reached the point where he'd thrown his hands in the air and given in. If she wanted to stay, then was going to have to fight for herself. And she _really_ wanted to stay.

She took a deep breath and proceeded to pitch a fit.

At the end of an hour she'd had her mother nearly in tears by her refusal to leave, her refusal to give up everything she'd ever known, and her refusal to listen at all to phrases like, "But, honey, think of the sun there; you'll love it!." and "Sweetie, this'll be for the best, believe me." After two hours, Charlie had come home and been fully drawn into the mother/daughter dispute, making a strained effort to uphold the charade of parental unity while barely managing to conceal his triumph that his daughter was so attached to the home he'd built. By the end of the third hour, things had turned messy, with both adults screaming at each other full blast, and Bella injecting her own opinion full force whenever she could get a word n edge-wise. Charlie was gruffly insisting that Bella was old enough to decide for herself, and Renee was crying shrilly that he'd already stolen twelve years of her life, and he wasn't getting her daughter, too. By the fourth hour, Renee had gone off to sulk behind a locked bedroom door, and Bella was perched on her father's lap, sobbing and telling him the she didn't want to go, while he petted her hair and murmured, "I know, baby, I know."

By the fifth hour, they'd reached a compromise. Bella wasn't totally satisfied with it, but she had the feeling that it was the best deal she was going to get. Thirty minutes later she crept out the back door, holding her breath, in fear that someone would catch her, and shepherd her back inside. She wasn't sure she could stand being inside those walls for another minute longer, and she wanted, she _needed,_ to see him. Her best friend. Her wolf. Somehow, she knew he'd be there to comfort her.

She pushed back the same branch she pushed back practically everyday, and find him curled in a ball, sleeping fitfully, muscles twitching reflexively as his russet fur glowed in the moonlight. She took one step forward, and his body suddenly snapped to attention, eyes springing open and homing in on her immediately. She swayed where she stood. She was suddenly aware that her throat burned from screaming, that her eyes were so red and puffy that they stung from crying, and that she was so exhausted she wasn't sure she could take another step. He looked at her, an whined as if he knew.

The next second she was curled up in his side, face buried in his sweet-smelling fur as she bawled. He nosed her and made soothing, rumbling growls deep in his chest, curling his body deliberately around her, as if he could take her in and protect her from all the pain in the world. She finally fell asleep there, after hiccuping out a distressed, "Love you, Wolf." And she slept safe, never knowing that his great brown eyes remained open all night, watching.

"So, it's just for the summer, right?"

"That's what she said." Bella kicked morosely at an empty soda can at her feet, flipping it into the wall with a tinny _clink. _"They both promised me that it would just be for the summer, and if I didn't like it, I could come back home. Mom says she just wants me to give it a try."

Jacob let out a long breath. He wasn't happy, but from what she'd said, things could've been a lot worse, and he wasn't going to make her feel bad about what little ground she'd gained. Instead, he tried to be mature about it all. "Well, I guess that wounds reasonable. I mean, you wont know how much you hate it until you try it." Bella scowled at him. She was still small for her age, and between her big eyes, unkempt brown hair, and overall tiny stature, the frown on her face totally failed to be intimidating. Jacob held his hands in mock surrender anyway.

"You think it's going to be so great, _you_ try it." She muttered mutinously. "Big Brother, I don't _want_ to go to Florida. I'm happy _here._ You're here, and my best friend is here, and everything I know is here. Just because she wants a new life doesn't mean she has to drag me into one, too." She grumbled, taking aim at, and missing, another empty can.

They were in the back yard of Jake's house, Bella perched on a stack of tires in sizes so random that Jacob couldn't match them to things he could use. He had taken a temporary break from mechanical work, and was currently standing next to a saw horse with a tape measure in his hands, and several board ends laying at his feet. One of the neighbors had commissioned to make a school desk for their child, and now the Black's backyard smelled like cut wood and varnish. Jake brushed sawdust from his hands with a brisk clapping motion, sidled over, and slid down the wall next to where she sat. The position put his head about even with the little girl's hip. He'd earned a brake, and he felt better when she was there. Deciding to be frank, he said:

"Look, I'm not saying it wont suck. But at least if you try it, you've got a great excuse for telling them you don't want to do it anymore."

Bella's teeth bit into her chapped lower lip, and her closely trimmed nails dug into the pealing plastic of the faded black tires. "Can I tell you something, Big Brother?" She whispered anxiously.

"Of course you can." She slithered off the tire pile, and Jake held out one hand to steady it and keep her from taking a tumble into the dirt. With a quick, shy glance in the direction of the house to check that both of their dads showed no sign of emerging from their football induced trances and checking on the back yard, she relocated to his lap. He cradled her carefully, stroking her hair, but felt her pull back enough to look into his eyes.

"I'm scared." Her voice was pitched low, like she was confessing a secret she didn't want anyone else to hear.

"What are you scared of?" Jacob's soft voice lowered to match hers. Bella almost looked ashamed of herself as she answered. She lowered her eyes.

"I'm afraid that they're lying to me. That they'll say that it's all just for now, but once I'm there, they'll never let me come back. That Mom'll just keep coming up with excuses. Dad'll argue with her, but what can he really do when we go all that way? Unless he actually came and got me, and he wont. He's too tired of fighting." She was worrying her lip even more urgently now. "I'm really worried, Big Brother."

Jake wanted to reassure her, but he had to admit that she might be on to something. It hadn't occurred to him before, but that sounded exactly like the kind of bull shit run around that parents with their children's "best interest" in mind would pull on their kids. Jake didn't know Renee as well as he knew Charlie, but he wasn't sure he'd put it past her to do something like that to his Bells. She was starring up at him with those wide, eager eyes, and he had to swallow past the sudden lump of anxiety in his own throat before he could answer her.

"Do you really think your mom would do that to you, honey?"

"I don't _want _to think she would." Bella answered slowly. "It's just... It's so hard to understand them right now." She sniffed, and Jacob didn't know what to say. As he struggled to find something appropriately reassuring that wasn't total BS, she turned to him again with that laser light focus. "Big Brother? Do you think everything will be OK?" She whispered. She was staring at him wtih a trust so completeshe looked helpless. Like she would be willing to believe all the trees were blue, as long as he told her so. He just couldn't meet the absolute faith in that gaze with a platitude.

He cupped her face in one big hand, stroking her cheek with his thumb. "Honey," he began cautiously. "'OK' doesn't always look the way you think it will. So if you're asking me if I think everything will work out just the way you want, and you'll get to stay in Forks, and things with your folks will magically be all perfect now, then, no, Bells, I don't think that." Her face fell. He continued gently. "But, if you're asking me if I think that eventually you'll somehow end up happy..." He smiled. "Then yes. I definitely think things'll be OK." she never took her eyes off of him, and he could practically feel her processing what he'd just said.

Finally, she murmured. "Do you promise?"

"Of course I do." He laughed, kissing her familiarly on the forehead. "Isn't that my job? I'm your Big Brother. Don't I exist to make you happy?" He poked her under her arms and skirted her ribs, tickling and making her laugh.

"I didn't think "slave for life" was in the Big Brother rule book." She giggled.

"Always read the fine print, honey." he scooped her up and deposited her back on top of the tire stack before heading back to work.

Renee stayed in Forks just long enough to watch Bella turn thirteen, before taking off to the sunshine state, gushing at her daughter all the way up to the airport gate about a summer of sun and sand. She had a job as a kindergarten assistant lined up, and she was planning on using the time until Bella got there to get settled and start nesting. Charlie's demeanor changed perceptively once she was gone. The semi-permanent tension in his posture drained gradually away, and while he had never been a very demonstrative man, he showed his affection for his daughter more openly when there wasn't someone there nagging him about it, even going so far as to hug her in public once or twice. Bella seemed happier as well. The sudden cease fire in her home environment did wonders for her spirits. She didn't suddenly blossom into a bubbly social butterfly, but at least now she smiled more than she frowned. She missed her mother, of course, and she cried all over her wolf's fur more than once because her father forgot to get her favorite cereal from the grocery, something Renee had never neglected, or because she didn't know how to work the iron without maternal guidance. For the most part, however, she was happy.

Jacob gave her the little-cherry wood wolf he'd carved for her birthday. He had scrapped his original and started again when he got the idea to remake it in pendant form. Bella might have been young enough to live like she forgot completely about the fact that she only had until the summer, but Jake wasn't. When reality came crashing in and she finally had to remember, he wanted her to always feel like a piece of him was with her. She was so happy that she nearly cried when she saw what he'd made her. And when, the very next day, she pranced into their little clearing to show off her wolf to her Wolf, her eyes shining with pleasure, Jake had been torn right down the middle between absurd pride and gnawing guilt. She didn't know- and he was forbidden to tell her- that she was braging about him to himself. No matter how strong the urge to enlighten her got, he couldn't do it. But maybe it was better that way. It was safer for her that she not be drawn into his crazy world.

The months went by, and the winter passed with Bella fluctuating between happy and needy extremes. She was either laughing as if the world was a wonderful place, or she would cling and shiver to both his forms, mewling for physical contact as if the pieces of her would drift apart if he wasn't holding her together. With Renee gone, the Blacks and the Swans spent Christmas together. The old men swapped beer for eggnog as Bella experimented with Christmas cookies in the kitchen, and Jacob dragooned his two best friends into helping him cut down and trim a tree. They worked together to decorate it, and Jacob laughed at Bella when she couldn't put the star top of the tree on her own. She retaliated by throwing tinsel in his hair.

Right around the middle of spring, Charlie was called away on a business trip to Seattle. A rash of bizzarre murders had been occurring in the city and the surrounding areas, and authorities there were concerned about the possibility of copy-cat crimes springing up, as the ones they found closely resemebled recent ones that had happened in other parts of the country. Communities from across the state were asked to send representatives to study the cases so that they could recognize possible signs of a trend. While Charlie was off doing his duty, Bella stayed with Jacob and Billy for three days. During the day, Billy told her old stories about the tribe's history, and at night, she crept into Jacob's bed. She said that, even though it was spring, at night she was still cold, and couldn't sleep. Jacob never had the heart to send her away, and in the morning his pillow smelled sweetly of unripe strawberries.

Jacob was nearing the end of his senior year, and he thanked whatever God might be listening that he'd managed to handle both school and the werewolf thing and somehow still pass. He was blindsided one day by Karly approaching him and hesitantly asking if he wanted to go to the end of the year dance with her. His first reaction was to turn her down, but before the words were out of his mouth, a few of Quil and Embry'smore glaring comments about his celibatestatus sprang to mind, and he paused. He wasn't a monk, and she was pretty, in a varsity kind of way. Hell, what could it hurt to datea little? He couldn't think of a good reason to say no, so he just gave in and said yes. Karly walked away blushing and looking pleasantly surprised, and Jacob felt moderately proud of himself for successfully negotiating a normal teenage interaction.

On the day of the dance, Jacob was prepared. He'd rented a tux, showered, shaved, and even splurged a little of his hard-earned money on a fancy corsage. He figured if her was going to do this thing, he may as well do it right. He arrived at Karly's house on time, was politeto her mother, attempted to look convincingly cowed by her father 's death threats, and complimented his date on her dress, the color of which he would forget the mext day. The dance itself wasn't spectacular. The music was sort of lame, and La Push didn't boast a high enough population for the senior class to have more than fifty kids, so as long as they were under the eyes of the adult chaperons, everything was pretty tame. Hanging out with Quil and Embryat the after party at the beach proved to be fun though. To his surprise, Jacob found that he was actually having a good time, and almost regretted having to leave to make sure his dategot home by the requisite 2am. They pulled up in her driveway, and Jacob was just about to exit his side to open her door for her, when she lunged across the consul and abruptly kissed him. Jacob's initial reaction was one of confusion. One second they had been chatting easily, lazily recapping the events of the night, and the next, her wet tongue was trying to worm its way between his sealed lips. The reverberations from the engine hadn't even fully died away yet. Jacob didn't lean in, or close his eyes. He just sat there, stiffly, with one hand still extended half way to the door handle, and let her kiss him. Humming quietly, she dipped down one manicured hand and cupped him through his dress pants.

Jacob felt nothing. She was pretty, and the evening had proven her to be nice enough. She was soft, and she didn't smell bad, and she was kissing him and even stroking him right there in the front seat of his car, and he felt nothing at all. Not lust, not attraction, not even disgust. She just... didn't register. He wondered why, briefly, as he gently, but firmly detached her from him. Ignoring her breathy inquiry and slightly hurt look, he exited the car, walked around to her side, and offered his hand to help her out. He even walked her to her door like the gentleman his parents had raised him to be, and wished her good night. She murmured a reply with downcast eyes, and then the door clicked shut behind her.

Jacob felt like he was in a fog the whole way home. The next day, Bella came riding shot gun in her father's police cruiser, and he gave her a little floral decorations he'd palmed from one of the dance tables. The glow on her face officially made that the best memory from the whole experience, and two days later he'd more or less forgotten everything about it except for that one look. So, when Quil asked with a raised eyebrow and knowing grin how things had gone with Karly, Jacob looked up distractedly from his work, blinked, and said: "Karly who?" Embry snorted, and Quil just sighed, and resignedly passed his smaller best friend a ten-dollar-bill.

From that point on time slid by like sand in a glass, and before either of them knew it, June had arrived. Bella's spirit's had been plummeting lately as the inevitable began to close in on her, just as Jacob had known they would. Having been right about it didn't make him feel any better: he knew she was unhappy, but he hadn't yet seen her cry. He had a feeling she was trying to be strong, and even though she wasn't fooling anybody, he was proud of her for making the attempt. The day before she was supposed to hop a plane to Florida, she and Charlie were having dinner at the Black's. As Charlie adjusted to bachelorhood, it had seemed natural for him to drift closer to his other single-dad friend. These evenings were usually filled with an easy sense of camaraderie and manly laughter, occasionally supplemented by Bella's blush or tinkling little laugh. But no one was laughing tonight. Charlie looked sad and tired, Billy quietly sympathetic, and Bella's eyes were fixed so steadily on her plate that Jacob knew she was afraid that if she looked up, she'd cry. He made a few feeble attempts to get her to smile, maybe even laugh a little, but when he fell flat the first few times, he gave up. His heart wasn't really in it anyway. It was just now sinking in for him that she was really going to be gone the next day, and something inside his chest was squeezing.

Bella managed to hold it together fairly well for most of the evening, and it wasn't until Jacob had given her one last bear hug, and Billy had kissed her hair and told her to be good, and her father was leading her to the car by the hand, that she cracked. With a high-pitched, strangled little cry, she tugged out of her father's grip and spun, tears streaming from her eyes, back to the porch step where he big brother stood. Without thinking, Jacob scooped down to pick her up. She was sobbing frantically by the time he caught her, and she wound all four limbs around his body desperately, as if she was terrified that he was going to let her go.

"I don't want to go!" she sobbed. "Don't let them make me go! Big Brother, please, don't let them make me!" Jacob swallowed hard, suddenly blinking back tears of his own. He'd been desperately pretending that her leaving didn't mean as much to him as it really did, and it was all coming apart now. She'd effectively just shoved a spike of agony through his chest. He fought to keep is together, as he glanced up at Charlie. The older man was leaning against his cruiser, looking drawn and tired. Jacob cleared his throat.

"Can I take her for a walk?" Charlie just nodded.

"Take this with you, son." His father had wheeled to his side, his eyes kind, and passed him one of Jacob's old sweater's from his lap. "It still gets cold at night."

"Thanks, Dad." Jacob wrapped it around the little girl's shaking shoulders, and, supporting her firmly with both arms, carried her towards the beach. He needed to think, and the sound of the ocean was soothing to his fraying peace of mind. It wasn't a short distance, but Jacob forgot to pay attention to time as he walked over the deserted sand with the little girl he desperately cared about sobbing down his neck. It wasn't until her wails subsided into whimpers and pained sniffles that he slowed down. Spotting a piece of bleached driftwood in the distance, he sat down gingerly, cradling her in his lap and stroking her hair, waiting for her to calm down enough for them to talk.

"... I don't want to go." The hysterical sobs had passed, and now she just sounded tired, her voice muffled by the fabric of his T-shirt.

"I don't want you to go either." Jacob spoke into her hair.

"It's not fair!" She cried. "Why do I have to go? Everything I want is here. My life is here, my best friend is here, _you're_ here. I miss my mom, but I don't want to loose you, too."

"Honey," his voice was a low rumble. "You'll never loose me. I'll always be there."

"You wont." She moaned. "They're taking you away from me." Her fingers tightened desperately in the hair at the nape of his neck.

She was breaking his heart. Jacob would've done anything for her, but kidnapping was a federal offence, and as much he would've loved to snatch her and run like hell away from both their problems, he knew they'd never really escape them unless they dealt with them now. It didn't stop his from considering it, though. The dark haired young man made a decision. To hell with it. To hell with what tribal law dictated or what the elders said. She needed this, and even if it wasn't only a small part of everything he wanted to tell her, he needed it, too.

"Bells, do you still have that necklace I gave you for you birthday?"

"Of course I do." Looking a little surprised by the seeming non-sequiter, she met his eyes for the first time with her own watery brown ones. "I wear it all the time."

"My litle wolf girl." He kissed her hairline proudly. "I want to tell you a story, Bella. It's a very important story to my people, and even though you've been to a few bonfires, I don't think you've heard it before. So I need you to listen carefully, OK?" Wide eyed, she nodded. "Years and years ago, there was a great danger to our tribe. A terrible threat came, and no weapon we had could defeat it."He was deliberately being as vague as possible. Now was not the time to dump the truth about vampires on her already overwhelmed head. "Then, one day, a great warrior among our people learned how to merge his spirit with that of a wolf, and so he became strong enough to protect our people. He taught the skill to others, and they became the tribe's Protectors. That's why the wolf is sacred to out people. It's a symbol of strength and loyalty." She was starring at him, so enthralled that she'd actually stop crying. He nudged one broad finger underneath the cord at her neck, and gently drew the small cherry-wood wolf out and into his palm. He placed it deliberately in her small hand, before covering it with both of his own. "This is the symbol of one of our Protectors. This is the Alpha. I carved this just for you, to make you happy, and keep you safe." Taking his hands from hers, he tucked the sweater more firmly around her small frame, and brushed a few hairs tenderly away from her face. He smiled. "As long as you have it, I'll always be with you."

Hot tears slid over his fingertips, but she was crying for a different reason now. Clutching her pendant with one hand, she scrubbed her face with the other, and touched his smile with a wet, trembling hand. "Big brother." Her voice was so low now that even he almost couldn't hear it. "Big Brother, do you promise?"

"I promise." He didn't ask what she meant.

"I believe you," She whispered.

A half-hour later, when he finally felt like he couldn't drag it out any longer, Jacob carried her back. She was cradled in his arms bridal style, sleeping soundly. The emotions of the day had apparently left her too worn out to stay awake any longer. Holding her like that as he walked slowly back, Jacob thought that their conversation had helped, but his heart still sank like a stone when the police cruiser came into view. All the same, he was too emotionally drained himself to show any outward signs of turmoil as he tucked her into the passenger side of the car. Charlie gave him a long look, which he returned with a blank stare, and then he stood there and waved as the car pulled slowly out of view. For some reason, he felt like an invisible string was stretching tight between himself and the cruiser's tail lights, the tension tugging painfully at his ribcage. She was gone, and he had never felt so abandoned. Somehow, he managed to finally turn around and shuffle back to the house. His father was waiting for him on the porch. He looked like he hadn't moved an inch the entire time. As Jacob passed, the older man put a lightly restraining hand on his arm.

"It'll be okay, son."

"Sure, sure." Jacob sighed. Eyes far away, he passed into the house.


	7. Flames

**_SO SORRY! I uploaded the wrong fic on acciden!. Here's the real chapter! Please forgive me!_**

_AN: Thanks again to everybody who reviewed, or put this story on alert. I always appreciate feedback. You guys have actually come up with a few ideas for the plot that have never even occurred to me. I think you might be surprised as to where this is actually going. Just a few things before we start the chapter:_

_1) This story is unbeta'd. I know there's a few spelling and grammar mistakes left, but what you find is mainly what I was too tired to catch before I threw my hands up and just posted the thing. Please don't hold it against me. I do my best._

_2) I currently have 99 reviews. I try my hardest not to review grub, because I'm honestly happy as long as my readers are enjoying the story, but for some reason, that 99 is just killing me. So, whoever post magical review #100 will get a sneak peak at the next chapter, as soon as it's ready. I promise, it'll be well worth it. _

_Now, on to the next chapter, where much will be revealed! _

**Chapter 7: Flames**

Years later, whenever Jacob was forced to look back on this period in time, (and it wasn't something he ever did willingly,) he was amazed that he'd never put the pieces together by himself. But, this was when he'd first started to realize that there might be something a little different about his relationship with Bella.

He thought about her all the time.

He wondered where she was, what she was doing, if she was homesick, and, a little guiltily, if she missed him yet. He dreamed about her at night, and day dreamed about her during the day. The gleam of old motor oil reminded him of the shine in her messy brown hair, and the sight of his own dark fingers wrapped around a silver wrench brought to ind the striking contrast of her pale skin against his own. Every word someone spoke sounded like her name, and he found his head jerking around automatically at least half-a-dozen times a day, following vaguely Bella shaped figures out of the corner of his eye. He couldn't focus, and as the days went by, it became harder and harder to pretend like everything was normal. He knew that he would miss her, but this feeling broke all bounds.

She consumed him.

* * *

Bella had arrived at the airport in Florida, in the heat of summer, swathed in a sweater at least four-sizes too big for her, one shrinking shoulder held unwillingly in the too-tight grip of a harried looking airline assistant. She'd been more than a little relieved when her mother's welcoming squeal had released her from the woman's manicured clutches.

"Bella!" Renee was clearly in raptures, squezing her daughter in a hug so tight her ribs ached.

"Mom! I can't breathe!" She'd gasped.

"Sorry, sweetie." Her mother laughed, releasing her. "I'm just so glad to see you! I've never had to go so long without seeing my little girl before." She cupped Bella's face gently in her warm hands, and tried to discreetly blink back her tears. She gave a watery chuckle and plucked at the neckline of the sweater Bella wore. "It's nearly a hundred degrees out there, today, baby. Are you trying to get heatstroke on your first day here?"

Bella shuffled her feet and turned red. "I didn't want to get cold on the plane."

Renee just laughed and, after nearly forgetting to collect her daughters luggage and spilling the contents of her carry-on backpack all over the terminal floor, finally managed to lead them both outside into the glaring Florida sunshine. Chest expanding in the fresh air, Renee hugged her daughter tightly to her side, kissed her temple, and spoke into her ear:

"This is such a wonderful place, Bella. You're going to love it here."

* * *

When Charlie came to visit Billy, Jacob had been in the kitchen making coffee. The police chief mentioned her name, and Jacob froze in he middle of the act of pouring a cup for himself, the black liquid trembling on the rim of the pot. Charlie had heard from Renee. Reluctant as she clearly was to ask her recently divorced husband for anything, she had called because Bella had been talking in her sleep at night, having nightmares, and calling out for things Renee didn't recognize. Apparently, Bella was asking for her Big Brother.

Jacob's hands started to shake, spilling hot coffee all over the dirty counter. His Bella was in pain. She was having nightmares, and he wasn't there to take them away.

Charlie jumped from his chair, his gun half-way drawn from his holster, when the mug shattered in Jacob's hands.

* * *

In spite of her natural flakiness, Bella loved her mother a lot, especially now that constant fights with her spouse weren't driving her out of her mind every few days. For Renee's sake, Bella tried very hard to like Florida. It should've been easy. Renee had been right: Florida was warm and beautiful, her mother's new apartment was small, and decorated so eclectically it stopped just this side of crazy, but it was welcoming nonetheless, and she got to spend time with her mother again. She thought she should be happy, but the truth was that she missed home. The Florida coast reminded her of La Push, every dark-haired man reminded her of Jacob, and not one of the kids she ran into on the beach was as easy to just be with as her Wolf was. She missed the two of them, and even her father, so much that it hurt sometimes. She tried to ignore it.

After the first day, Bella had stopped wearing her Big Brother's sweater during the day, and taken to cuddling in it at night. The scent of it, woodsy and musky and warm, reminded her of Jacob, and it helped her sleep. It wasn't until about two weeks into her stay with her mother that she realized something terrible.

The scent was wearing off. No matter how deep she buried her nose in the thick material, it didn't smell like him anymore. The steady throb of homesickness in her chest abruptly turned into clenching panic. Bella didn't fall asleep that night until the sun had nearly proclaimed it morning.

And that was when the nightmares started.

* * *

Jacob didn't understand it.

It had been three weeks now. Three torturous weeks with no Bella, and Jacob felt like he was loosing it. He must have seriously underestimated how much her acceptance of his wolf side meant to him, because suddenly the weight of his secret was getting harder and harder for him to bear. More than anything, he wanted to meet her in their clearing, and have her tiny hands stroke his fur, reassuring him with her wordless trust that he wasn't the monster he often felt like he was, and suddenly that was the one thing he couldn't have. God, he missed her.

And on top of that, he was getting sick. Jacob couldn't really comprehend it. In the nearly three years since he'd first phased, he'd never been ill even once. Old Quill had explained to him that bacteria and viruses basically shriveled up and died in the face of his 108.9 degree body temperature, and he'd been thankful that there was at least one side effect of being a wold that there didn't seem to have a downside to. But apparently, not even that was holding true. He ached.

At first, he'd catch himself absently rubbing the left side of his chest, noticing the pang there, and thinking he'd just pulled a muscle by lifting something wrong, and that it would go away in a day or so. It hadn't. Apparently, ultra-fast werewolf healing abilities and a ridiculously high body temperature weren't enough to fight off whatever this was, because it kept getting worse. The pangs turned into sharp jolts, and then a permanent, tearing, _pull. _It got harder to breathe. He'd nearly lost a finger to an electric power saw because his hands were shaking so badly he couldn't guide the machine. He'd pulled the cord and sat down for a full fifteen minutes, wheezing and clutching his chest. In a desperate attempt to calm himself down and get his heart rate back to normal, Jacob had painstakingly drawn a picture of Bella in his head. He thought about her sweet, unripe scent, about how his finger always caught in the tangles in her hair when he ran his fingers through it, the laser-like focus of her eyes, the feeling of her tucked into the massive side of the wolf, and the affection in her eyes when she called him "Big Brother" It was the most peaceful thing he could think of.

The pain just got worse.

Something was beyond wrong. He was going to have to get help.

* * *

"I've never seen her act like this."

"She's probably just homesick, Renee. You worry too much."

"I thought so too, at first, but now she's complaining that her chest hurts. That's not normal, is it? I mean, the crying was one thing. But then the nightmares started. I swear, Dori, she wakes me up in the middle of the night with this God awful weeping. It sounds like somebody's died. She says things about people I've never met, and wont tell me who they are, and now she's claiming to be in pain all the time. This can't be normal! What should I do?" Renee wrung her hands as she trotted down the hall, trying her best to muffle her clumsy footsteps in the threadbare carpet. Bella was supposed to be asleep, and she didn't want to wake her, or worse, risk somehow triggering a nightmare.

Her companion was a dumpy lady of late middle age with tightly curled brown hair, and pink framed glasses, whose height only reached to about five feet. She was one of Renee's coworkers, and the closest friend she had made yet in Florida. Dori had given birth to four children and, through a series of complicated circumstances, ended up raising two more, and the younger woman found her earthiness endearing, and respected her wisdom. She patted Renee on the back in a motherly sort of way. "You're over-thinking it, dear. Everything's new to her here, and she doesn't know how to deal with it. Plus at that age, you know, no young girl can tell day from night anyway."

"It's not just hormones, Dori!" Renee hissed anxiously. "I wish that's all it was! Mood swings I could deal with, but she never looks happy, and she keeps clutching her chest. And the way that she sleeps..."

"Well," Dori huffed. "If you really think it's that big a deal... Why don't we take a peek?"

Reluctantly, Renee nodded, and gently turned the knob on the door at the very end of the hallway. She winced as it creaked while it opened. A sliver of light fell in from the hall and landed on the bed, but the figure on top of it didn't wake up. Dori gently shoved Renee out of the way, and, hands planted on her chubby hips, peered inside.

Bella had kicked off her covers and lay curled on the bed, knees drawn up to her chest, all four limbs tucked into a sweater so large that only her head and the tips of her toes could be seen. She was clutching at her chest, or at something close to her chest, and she was muttering in her sleep. Dori leaned in closer.

"Wolf..." The girl's voice was low, and her words were unenunciated, and difficult to make out. "Wolf... don go... You promis...ed ... bi... brother..."

Dori frowned, and shut the door. "What is Wolf?"

"I have no idea." Renee was slumped against the wall, picking nervously at the sleeve of her shirt. "I asked her once, and she told me it was the nickname of her friend, but she wont tell me anything else about him, and it's certainly not somebody I've ever met. And believe me, if they lived in Forks, I've met them." She concluded with a wry grimace.

"Sweetheart," The older woman began as she took Renee's hand and gently led her back into the small kitchen to sit her down. "There's a time to be firm with your children, there's a time to spoil them, and then there's a time to listen to what they're trying to tell you. This might be one of those times."

"But, I just... Renee rubbed her eyes tiredly. "I just got her here. I just don't want to loose her."

Dori sighed and patted her hand.

* * *

The room was filled with dark, swirling smoke. Old Quil liked to smoke his tobacco fresh cut, directly from a pipe, and as sometimes he didn't bother to open the window, his house always felt a little claustrophobic, and smelled like a bowling alley, minus the shoe wax.

Normally, Jacob wouldn't have minded, but today the fumes seemed to make his chest ache that much worse. This had ceased to surprise him. Lately, everything seemed to make it worse. He sat before the oldest tribal elder, his head bowed, rubbing his right hand over his heart silently while he waited for Old Quil to finish his examination and tell him what the hell was wrong with him. For a long time, there was no sound, other than the ancient man's soft _hummm _of thought. When Jacob finally glanced up, it was to find Old Quil's rheumy eyes locked on his own sweating face with an expression, quickly gone, of pity and understanding.

"Jacob Black," He began. "How much do you trust your Elders?"

Jacob blinked. "I trust my Elders." He responded slowly.

"And how much do you love your tribe."

"Enough to serve it... Put it before my other needs and desires." The old man's fragile shoulders were squared, and his tone was oddly formal. Jacob didn't dare respond with anything less formal himself.

"Do you love and respect your father, and your family?"

"Yes, of course." He frowned.

"And yet, is there someone that you would put above all these things? Above your family, your tribe, your duty? One thing or person, above all others, who truly rules in your heart?"

"Excuse me, Elder, but I really don't understand what you mean." Jacob rubbed his chest again, grimacing in discomfort and exasperation.

The wall that was Old Quil's face broke, and the old man chuckled at the werewolf in front of him. "Forgive me, son. We old folks get carried away sometimes. But as for your problem..." Old Quil levered himself out of his chair with a grunt, and Jacob reached out with his free hand instinctively to steady the older man's elbow. Old Quil smiled his thanks. He wobbled slowly over to a small chest on the far side of the room, mumbling under his breath as he went. He returned and thrust something into Jacob's hand with surprising strength. The younger man looked down, and saw it was a small leather bag, bound shut with a thin cord at the top. There was a design on the front, stitched there with broad strokes in dark thread, and Jacob recognized it at once.

"A medicine pouch?" Jacob raised an eyebrow. "You really don't know what's wrong with me, do you?"

Old Quil snorted. "You young people. You think you know everything. As a matter of fact, I do have an idea of what's troubling you, son." Jacob's head perked up, his attention caught. When he'd came here, it had been at his father's insistence. He hadn't actually expected Old Quil to be able to help him with whatever this was. He felt hope stir, dimly, within his seizing chest. "Now, as for what can be done about it..." Old Quil settled himself back into his chair with another grunt. "Well, I'll have to talk to your father. There might be one or two things." He smiled, and then jabbed at the leather pouch he'd given Jacob with the cane he held in his gnarled hands. "In the meantime, holding on to that can't hurt. Now, go fetch your old man, and do your duty. You can come pick him up from Harry's later. We'll eat there, so you don't have to worry about taking care of him tonight. Now, get moving."

Expression torn between skepticism and grudging hope, Jacob dutifully wheeled his father in and departed. The two old men chatted about neutral topics until they were both convinced that Jacob was far enough away that even a werewolf's hearing wouldn't be able to pick up what they were about to discuss. Finally, Billy changed the subject from world series potentials and got the the point.

"So, did he answer when you asked him?"

Old Quil snorted. "Of course he didn't. That is the answer. If he'd been able to tell me no, I would've believed him. But if he's just in denial about it, then his reaction makes perfect sense."

"So then, you think I'm right?" Billy leaned forward intently.

"Yes, I do." The old man answered. "The protectors are damn near indestructible, according to legend. Nothing short of a vampire should be able to harm them physically, and it's not like he's fought one of those recently. The only possible explanation for it is an Imprint." Billy sighed. Old Quil squinted at him. "And you're sure about the girl?"

Billy squared his jaw. "Positive. I was suspicious for a while before, but the timing on this whole 'sickness' of his had me convinced. It started right when she left. Hell, you should see him when Charlie comes over: always hovering around to try and hear something about Bella. And if that wasn't enough, you should've been there when Charlie brought her over to say goodbye before sending her to her mother in Florida. That little girl damn near broke my heart." He shook his head mournfully. Old Quil stared at his folded hands, eyes sunk deep in thought.

"And you say that he doesn't realize that he's imprinted? The way the legends speak of it, that sounds impossible."

"I know it, but the legends weren't about Jacob. He's as stubborn as an ox, and I can see why he wouldn't want to acknowledge something like Imprinting on a child. He never put much stock in those legends anyway. I don't think he believes that Imprinting really exist."

"We have to tell him. And then we have to talk to Charlie. The separation from his soul-mate is destabilizing our Alpha. His pain is growing, and it wont be long before it will consume him."

Billy's face hardened. "I'll talk to Charlie. He misses Bella, too, and I might be able to talk him into bringing her back home early, although that'll depend on how willing Renee is to let her go. But, I'm not telling Jacob about this."

Old Quil raised his eyebrows in firm dissaproval. "He is the Alpha. He needs to know what the purpose of his life is."

Billy scowled. "He may be the Alpha, but he's my son first, and what he needs is to get better. Telling him why he's hurting is only going to make it worse. Jacob hates being a werewolf, and he hates having no choice in the matter. Believe me, he's mentioned that more than once. If I tell him that's he's Imprinted on Bella, the first thing he'll do is try to fight if off, for her sake, and that'll just cause him more pain than he's already in. I wont do that to my son. Tell Harry that this is my decision. I'm still chief until Jacob formally accepts his position, and since he hasn't done that yet, what I say goes. The only thing we can do for him now is hide the Imprint, and try to get that little girl back home where she belongs."

* * *

"Dr. Jenkins told me to come see you. He couldn't find anything wrong with her, but she keeps complaining about these pains. He said it might be psychosomatic... that maybe she's making it up, or convincing herself she's feeling things..." Renee was biting her lip, and twisting her hands together in her lap, clearly uncomfortable in the mauve toned, papery-smelling atmosphere of the psychiatrist office. The woman behind the desk whom she was addressing faced her with a sympathetic but coolly professional gaze.

"I'm aware of Dr. Jenkins assessment. I read his notes before I spoke with your daughter this morning." The psychiatrist's smile was tight, but intended as encouraging. "Divorces are hard on everyone, Mrs. Swan, both adults and children, and parents often find it difficult to make their children comfortable with the change in situations." Renee frowned slightly at the use of her former name, but didn't bother to correct the other woman. She just nodded, and waited for her to continue. But the psychiatrist hesitated. "Tell me... did your ex-husband tell you any stories of things like this happening before Bella came to Florida?"

"No, never."

"And this "Big Brother" she keeps talking about... this is someone you've actually met, yes?"

"Yes, I have. Jacob Black. He was the son of a friend of the family... Well, more my ex-husband's friend than mine, but I've known Jacob ever since he was born. He at least five or six years older than Bella, though. I had no idea they'd gotten so close, but the last time I talked to Charlie, he mentioned that she'd become attached to him, and that he didn't seem to mind."

"Alright." The psychiatrist pressed on. "But, you say you've never met anyone nicknamed "Wolf? Do you think it could be one in the same person?"

"I... I don't think so." Renee hesitated. "That was never a nickname of Jacob's that I've ever heard of, and the way she talks about them, I always got the feeling they were separate. I mean, one is always "my friend Wolf," and the other is always, "Big Brother," although she wont say that much about either of them, really." The other woman frowned, slightly. "What do you think is going on with my daughter."

"Well, you have to understand that I can't say anything for sure based on just one meeting with Bella, but my initial reaction would be to agree with Dr. Jenkins. Your daughter may have seemed OK with the divorce originally, but from what I've gathered from both of you, it seems like she just distanced herself from the turmoil at home, and found someone else to attach a lot of her trust and affections to. It's not really that uncommon a reaction for children to reach outside the home it times of domestic upheaval for an outside support system. We're lucky in this instance that the figure she choose to attach herself to seems to be a positive role-model. However, suppressed, negative feelings about the separation of her parents, combined with the stress of a move to a new and unfamiliar environment, and separations from her chosen support figure could easily lead to pain. Stress can manifest itself physically that way in some circumstances, even in young children."

Renee nodded unhappily. "And... and what about this "Wolf" she keeps talking about?"

Now the psychiatrist smiled. "Well, I know you might feel your daughter's a little old to be experiencing this sort of thing, but a lonely child under any circumstances- especially one who has an active imagination, as I think you mentioned- might easily turn to that same imagination for company."

"So, you're saying that this "Wolf" is... that Bella created an imaginary friend? Is that what you're saying?"

"In a word, yes. Or, at least, it looks that way."

Renee laughed shortly, relief evident in the droop of her shoulders. "OK. Alright then. Imaginary friends I can handle. Kids just grow out of that, right?"

"Usually." The psychiatrist smiled again. "Don't press her on it. I recommend just letting that run its course. I'm sure "Wolf" will face away when she decides she doesn't need him anymore."

"Alright." Renee repeated, now visibly breathing easier. "So, what do you recommend I do about the pain? Psychosomatic or not, I hate to see my little girl hurting. Isn't there something I can do?"

The woman behind the desk hesitated. "You can wait it out, and be as patient as supportive as possible. It's possible that it will all pass on its own if she's given time to adjust. However..." She hesitated, as if unsure how to phrase the next sentence. Renee gestures eagerly for her to continue. "There's no easy way to put this, ma'am, but it's also possible that Bella is just not ready to adjust to these new circumstances yet, and that the best thing you could do for your daughter is to send her back to Washington."

Renee's sound of protest was muffled in the hall, but Bella wasn't paying any attention anyway. The sneakers she'd been kicking sullenly against the dirty metal of the office chair had stopped moving. Her eyes were wide, and her breathing uneven, as she clutched the rose wood wolf in her sticky palm. It's usually comforting weight couldn't dispel the surge of panic that licked through her veins, or stop the sudden spike of pain in her chest that was no throbbing so badly it made her gasp. She knew she was crying, but her cheeks were numb: she couldn't feel the tears.

"I didn't imagine you." She whispered, staring at the wolf in her hand. "I didn't."

The nightmares got worse. The whimpers turned into screams.

* * *

Even the wolf missed Bella.

It got more and more difficult to control his instincts anymore when he phased. Jacob felt like the counterweight that balanced out the wolf's aggression and territoriality was missing; every human thought he held onto while he was in the wolf now felt like a struggle. When he ran the perimeter at night, Jacob found himself spending more and more time exploring the southeastern-most edge. He wanted to cross the line so badly. How long would it take to run to Florida? Could he cross all those states in one day? The wolf in him whimpered for her. It wanted to cross the border, hunt her down, follow her scent to someplace that felt like home, and feel her warm fingers wrapped in his fur. The urge was so strong it was almost debilitating. The part of him that was Jacob had to constantly battle with the instinct driven wolf to keep his mind on the task at hand. He was running to hunt vampires, not pine over a thirteen year old, for Heaven's sake. He ruthlessly reminded himself again and again that she was just a little girl, and that he had a duty, and he'd just have to survive without her for a little while, the same way he'd carried on without his mother or either of his sisters. He'd overcome their losses, he could overcome this as well.

But as the days passed, and he pain grew, phasing became increasingly painful. The medicine pouch tucked under his pillow didn't make his burdens easier to carry, and the dream catcher at his headboard couldn't take the visions of her away. What was a fiery pull when he was human became a white-hot cord straining from his chest when he was phased. At just over the one month mark of her absence, Jacob couldn't take it anymore.

He stopped phasing altogether.

* * *

Jacob squatted in his garage, an oil pan held loosely in one hand, while the other clutched once more at his chest. His head was bowed, and his hair fell into his eyes as he tried to get his hands to stop shaking long enough to change the oil on his latest commission. A sudden bang from behind him made him jump nearly out of his skin, and curse as he spun around. The oil pan fell to the dirt floor with a dull _clang!_

"Jesus, Quil!"

The stockier boy held up his hands, palm forward and approached slowly. "Sorry, man. Didn't mean to give you a heart-attack."

"Yeah, right." Jacob huffed as he squatted to retrieve the now dented oil pan. Nothing felt right lately. He hadn't phased in a week, and while the wolf was baying inside off him to be released, phasing only made the pain that thrummed through his chest constantly, now, into a near crippling reality. He could barely move under it. But between trying to fight back the ache in his chest, and ignoring the call to phase, living a normal life had become nearly impossible. The clamor of his body drowned out everything else. With his kind of hearing, there should've been no way for Quil to sneak up and surprise him like that, especially since the other boy hadn't even been trying to be quiet, but Jacob hadn't known he was there until the door slammed back. He ran his hand over his scalp as he stood up, not caring that he was getting oil in his hair. He couldn't keep going on like this. Something had to give.

"Jake, man, you look like shit." Quil peered at him closely, concern written all over his normally carefree face.

"Well, I feel like shit, too, so at least I look how I feel." The larger young man glanced from the pan in his hands, to the car parked on his right, gave up, dropped the metal pan with another echoing _clang_ and slumped down on the bench in the corner. There was a second of silence.

"Want me to help you out with that?"Quil's voice was unusually free of any trace of mockery.

"Be my guest." Jacob swept a hand gratefully in the car's general direction. Soon the sounds of manual labor filled the small garage.

"The old man mentioned that you were sick. Said you came to see him." Jacob's ears told him that Quil was unscrewing a lid, and that it stuck a little, resisting the movement of his hands.

"Yeah. It was my dad's idea."

Quil barked out a short laugh. "What, is he trying to get you afraid of the hospital, too? The man has diabetes and he acts like walking in there is a death sentence."

Jacob snorted. "Tell me about it." He rubbed his chest again. "This though... Whatever's... wrong with me. I don't think a doctor could help, man."

The glugging sound of pouring oil stopped. "What is wrong with you. I've never seen you look this bad, Jake, and that's counting the time when the three of us all got laryngitis when we were twelve."

"Fuck, I wish this was laryngitis. Honestly, Quil, I have no clue what's wrong with me." He looked up. Quil wasn't even pretending to change the oil now. Instead he was starring at Jacob with open worry on his face. For some reason, that expression just made Jacob feel worse.

"Seriously, you're not avoiding the hospital because of some crazy superstitious thing, are you? Because I really think you should get someone to check you out. You look like death warmed over."

"Quil, I can't, I..." Can't explain to any legitimate doctor why my body temperature indicates that I should be dead. "I just... look, can we talk about something else?'

"Jake, man, I really think-"

"Please." Jacob winced as he cut his friend off roughly. Quil opened and shut his mouth two or three times, then cleared his throat, and turned back to the car.

"Yeah, sure. So, d'you hear about that girl that went missing a week or so ago?"

Jacob frowned, and then something flickered in the back of his mind. "Yeah... I think I remember Billy bringing it up with Charlie. Apparently the entire Forks police department was on it." He recalled this with a stab of guilt. The girl had disappeared from a group outing on Second Beach, and he should've been out here searching for her, too, but the thought of phasing had just been more than he could stand. "Did they find her?"

"Yep, they found her." Quil's voice was grave. "About a mile from here. Can you believe that, man? A murder in La Push? Hell, right in our back yard! And apparently, there was some freaky shit involved, too."

Jacob had gone completely stiff. "What freaky shit?" He asked slowly.

"Like, she wasn't stabbed or shot to death, or anything like that. It looked like she'd been _bitten, _and all the blood was drained out of her. A cousin of mine- you remember Rodney, right?- saw the body and told me it was one of the most fucked up things he'd ever seen. Like some kind of wanna be vampire homicide-"

At this point, Jacob wasn't even breathing. " Quil," he stopped the other boy in mid-sentence. "Quil, a mile in which direction?"

"Heading out towards Forks, I thin- Hey, Jacob! Wait! Jake!"

But Jacob was already out the door and halfway to the edge of the woods before the words finished coming out of his friend's mouth. He phased not ten feet beyond the tree line, and howled wildly ad he sprinted for Forks.


	8. Phoenix

_AN: Hi again. Sorry about the late update but don't worry. I've by no means given up this story. I've just been a bit distracted by grad school applications. They can take a lot out of you. Anyway, thanks so much to those of you who reviewed and PM'd me about this story! It means a lot to me to now that people like it! Especially those of you who are repeat reviewers. You guys rock!_

_Also, herein is baby's first battle sequence. What do you think? Does it need more action?_

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**Chapter 8: Phoenix**

The clouds roiled in the darkening sky above as Jacob raced away from his ramshackle garage and out into the night. The wind was keening wildly between the branches of the trees, and stinging in his eyes. It was carrying in a storm, and it was coming fast and hard.

From the very moment when he raised up a human foot and set down a canine paw, Jacob felt it. The fiery, wrenching _pull_ towards her seemed to increase tenfold as soon as the fur settled on his transformed body, but for the first time since it had begun to haunt him, an equally powerful emotion was rising inside of him, fighting back the pain.

That emotion was guilt. Sick, churning, stomach-melting guilt.

_How? How the hell could I have been so selfish? How could I have been so stupid, so pathetic, so _weak,_ that I actually stopped phasing? My people were counting on me, and I failed. All because I can't stop fucking pining over some kid. _A small voice in the back of his head pointed out that his daily agony wasn't something he was making up, but the rest of him compared what he was feeling, to what it probably felt like to have all your blood sucked from your body by a cruel, stone-taloned vampire, and he remained firmly convinced that he had no excuse. The blood of the dead girl- whoever she was. God forbid it was somebody he actually _knew-_ was on his head, and he'd never be able to wash it off.

He'd be damned if he failed his people again.

The scent of it was surprisingly easy to find. The thing had apparently tramped all over La Push. Either it didn't realize that it was trespassing in the home of its natural predators, or it was just too arrogant to care. Disgust washed over Jacob in a great wave. The stench of rotting sugar would have been enough all on its own to make him feel nauseous, but the disgust he felt was aimed mostly at himself. If he'd been able to pull himself together, and do his duty the way he should've, the thing would have learned quickly to fear this land. Growling, Jacob turned his nose into the wind. It was so strong tonight that it blew all kinds of confusing scents to him, and his nostrils quivered until he sneezed from overstimulation. However, even with all those distractions, there was nothing strong enough to overpower the stench of leech that dirtied the air. It demarcated a clear path between the quivering trees. The scent was a few days old, and even though it led away from La Push and Forks, it didn't even cross Jacob's mind to stop following it. No more innocent lives would be lost through his negligence.

He ran for what felt like hours, his muscles straining tirelessly under his skin, every instinct on constant alert for a more recent sign of the vampire as he pelted on into the gathering night. And all the while, his mind and chest burned. Guilt and fury raged, and all he could think about was chasing the miserable leech down and tearing it to pieces. And yet, the cord around his heart pulled and pulled, and the choking desire to see Bella blazed in his veins.

Jacob didn't slow down until the trail led him into more populated areas, and he had to start being more careful. The scent was starting to feel more recent. His lip curled in disgust, drawing back to reveal his dangerously curved incisors. He supposed it only made sense for the thing to make a bee-line to a place full of prey, but it made the hunt that much more difficult. He was reduced to slinking into the shadows on the outskirts of the town he found himself in, senses working double time as he monitored every smell and sound. It was late, and the wind was shrieking between the tall buildings that sprouted up around him as, panting with a mix of pain and exertion, Jacob crept cautiously further and further into the town, following the sickly smell of leech. It wasn't until he saw the brightly colored flags hanging from a signpost, lit be the glare of a streetlight, that he found out where he'd tailed the leech to. The creature had followed its blood lust all the way to the campus of the University of Washington..

Fuck, this was not good. All the paths here were too well lit, for one thing. Jacob could only assume that it was meant as a safety precaution for students who were stuck on campus until late at night, but as he had to sneak in order to avoid being seen, all they were doing was increasing the chances of some innocent undergrad becoming a bloodsucker's midnight snack . Not to mention, the lamps ruined his night vision. His wolf eyes were so sensitive that the change in light temporarily blinded him every time he walked past one as his pupils unconstricted. The University had also installed what looked like poles with flashing sirens on top at regular intervals on the more commonly trodden paths. Each had a large, red button embedded about half-way down the trunk. Jacob supposed the idea was that, should any student get into some kind of trouble they couldn't handle, all they had to do was press the button, and help would be on the way. All it would take for someone to blow his cover would be for one clueless student to spot him, and reach one of those pillars before he noticed, and the game would be up. But, all around him, the smell of vampire was growing stronger and stronger. Jacob didn't have any time to waste. He stuffed himself between cars and into small alleys, seeking out narrow spaces and darting quickly across open ones, lacing backwards and forwards across the thing's trail and hoping like hell there weren't any cameras. Luckily, he didn't see many students. Rain was beginning to lace the howling wind, and the combination of the weather and the late hour seemed to be keeping most people indoors.

The shimmer was what finally gave it away. Jacob noticed the subtly glimmer shining in the dark between two circles of light on a walkway on the far side of the campus. He himself had stayed downwind, approaching his prey from behind, and what he saw made him curse. It rose from his throat as an inaudible growl. This leech's skin was darker than normal; while still chalky and corpse-like in complexion, it had apparently been a dark skinned human once, as it's skin resembled polished basalt rather than ivory. It was standing totally still, almost statue-like, the only visible movement coming from the sight of its dread locked hair whipping in the strong wind. Agony flared as thoughts of Bella's hair dancing in the breeze formed in his mind, but fury and self-condemnation were surging equally strong within him, and for the first time in weeks, Jacob found himself able to think past the longing for her. He dropped to a crouch, every particle of him focusing in on the creature in front of him, determined to rip it limb from limb, when it stirred, shifting its stance just slightly, and yet the movement was enough to make Jacob freeze. Even the sub-vocalized growling stopped. Although anger and pain were clouding his judgment, Jacob was not a fool. He knew that, considering the state he was in, if he lost the element of surprise- if the thing discovered him before he could sink his teeth into it- he was through. But, several adrenaline fueled heartbeats later, it became clear that the dark skinned vampire's attention was not focused on him. For the first time, Jacob looked beyond the monster in front of him, and what he saw made his heart drop into his stomach.

The leech was focused on a woman. She looked young, with dark hair and dark eyes. She couldn't have been much older than Jacob, and as she walked she juggled several textbooks and her cell phone, completely oblivious to the danger surrounding her. Fuck, fuck, _fuck,_ how in the _hell _was he supposed to kill the things with an innocent girl standing there to witness the whole scenario? It's not like she would just ignore the SUV-sized wolf and bristling vampire if they engaged in a life or death throw down right under her nose. Totally inattentive to the creature eyeing her like she was a thanksgiving turkey, she covered her head with a notebook to try and fend off the rain. The whipping wind rushed past her and carried her scent to the two mythological beings now keeping her pace. To Jacob she smelled like lemons and pine resin; it was sharp, but not unpleasant. To the leech, however, it must have smelled like something else entirely, because, to Jacob's revulsion, it ran it's basalt tongue over its stone lips and hissed, to low for a human to hear:

_"Delicious."_

Jacob wanted to retch. The thing made the minutest shift of stance, the briefest signal that a strike was eminent, and Jacob tensed to spring, just as the girl raised her head, pausing briefly under the next circle of lamp light.

She had large eyes. Brown eyes. Eyes that, for the briefest of seconds, looked just like _her_ eyes.

Jacob couldn't move. Suddenly, he couldn't even _breathe._ The white hot cord in his chest had looped into him and yanked out all the air in his body. He whimpered.

The sensation seemed to last forever. In reality, it only lasted for about two seconds. Two seconds was enough.

The girl screamed.

The sound shattered the pain and cleared Jacob's head enough for the wolf's instinct to take over, and his body lunged forward with a powerful push of his hind legs, aiming to take off the leech's head. Unfortunately, either his involuntary sound of pain or his scent had given him away, and the creature turned his head and spun out of range, all in one smooth movement, and all in the time it took for Jacob's paws to leave and hit the ground again. He regained his footing and turned, growling openly now, mindful each moment to never offer his back to the thing; no matter how fast it was, Jacob would not let it behind him. It stared at him in stunned amusement, and the very expression on its face made the werewolf's blood boil as the leech dropped into a cat-like crouch. Jacob began warily to circle, trying to preempt escape.

"Well, well, well," it murmured, its well modulated voice carrying some kind of exotic accent, Jamaican possibly. "What _do _we have here? Oh, I think I know what you are, poochy. Who knew the stories were true?" Vocally, it sounded completely unconcerned, but Jacob noticed that its eyes never stilled, red circles flickering over his fur, his claws, his deadly fangs, calmly and clearly assessing strengths and searching for weaknesses. This bloodsucker was obviously worlds away from the nomad he had slaughtered once upon a time in the woods near Forks. This was perhaps the most dangerous moment he had faced since phasing for the first time, but of course, memories of the last leech he had fought of necessity brought up memories of_ her,_and her sweet face in the fall light, and the pain wanting to see her again made his breath come hard and unsteady in his chest. Nostrils flaring, almost as if it could smell weakness, the vampire smirked.

"As much as I would like to play, Fido, I'm in the middle of dinner at the moment." It nodded in satisfaction at something just over Jacob's left shoulder, and abruptly, he remembered the girl. As if his own inner turmoil had tuned her out, as soon as he recalled that she was there, her whimpers of pain became audible to him again, as though someone was quickly turning the volume up on a radio. For no more than a split second, Jacob risked a glance over his shoulder. "Be a good dog, and maybe I'll throw you some scraps from the table." The vampire laughed.

There was bright red blood everywhere, the color of primary paint, and the sharp, coppery, tang of it drowned out totally the scent pine and lemon. The young woman was on the ground, rolling in agony and clutching at her face, the blood coating her violently shaking fingers. She was alive, but gravely injured, and the sounds of pain she was making gave the brutality of the scene a more animal, less human quality.

Jacob tasted bile. He stared into the vampires smirking face, his brains on fire, and knew that he had never hated anyone or anything so much in his entire life.

Its smirk broadened. Then it lunged.

The vampire faked left, heading in the girl's direction, and Jacob followed. With incredible speed, it changed trajectory in mid-step, launching itself at the werewolf before Jacob had time to prepare himself, and landing a dazzling hit on the shoulder. Jacob had swerved just in time to avoid being hit in the face, but the blow still made him yelp and stumble. Quickly, his head and neck whipped around and his teeth clashed inches from the vampire's chest. It dodged, but Jacob's paw was already moving, and he landed a retaliatory swipe against the thing's thigh, and felt cloth and something much harder tear in his claws. Showing its first sign of dismay since the encounter had started, the vampire hissed and danced back, red eyes narrowing. Jacob could feel pain radiating out from his shoulder now to join that in his chest, but he threw his body forward anyway, fangs bared for the kill. At the last second, the vampire smiled again, stepped to the side, and brought both fist down in a crashing blow on his back. Jacob could feel several ribs crack. He howled and spun away as the vampire swiped at him, its fingers gouging at his sides and drawing long lines of blood before he managed to catch it with his hind leg and send it spinning into one of the emergency alarm poles. The post bent under the impact, and all of th sudden the path they were in blazed with light and sound. The leech's rock hard body had hit the alarm button. Righting himself, Jacob stood there panting, with the still weeping and bleeding girl positioned in between himself and the vampire.

"Hello!" A scratchy voice drifted out of theintercom box on the bent emergency pole. "Is there a problem?"

The vampire hissed, and Jacob growled viciously. The girl on the ground wailed out: "Help me!"

Depending on how fast the emergency workers responded, Jacob had no more than a few minutes to get this monster dismembered and burned before more innocent bystanders arrived. He'd already failed to protect the vampire's intended victim: yes, she was alive, but possibly only barely. He couldn't risk anyone else showing up until it was dead and gone, but his body was shaking, and his thoughts scattered. Eating through his urge to protect, the desire to kill the bloodsucker, and his adrenaline haze was a corrosive little voice in his head that said continuously _Bella, Bella, Bella_, and not even the knowledge of the very real danger he was in could drown it out. His beloved little girl was going to be the death of him.

The vampire was laughing now. He fell back a few steps, and thought of her voice. Its mouth moved, taunting him with his weakness. He crouched defensively, and thought of her kisses on his fur. Its stench burned in his nostrils, and he though of the scent of uipe nrstrawberries. It sprang suddenly, faster than a human eye could follow, aiming for the girl. Jacob looked at her and saw her wounded face clearly for the first time; four thin, gruesome gashes sliced into her dark skin, and somehow it was _her_ face. Everything that was Jacob came together to twist into a thin line, a taught point, and then it snapped.

Before he knew what had happened, he was standing over the leech, front paws planted on its basalt chest, claws digging pitiless grooves into its undead flesh, the most horrible taste in the world in his mouth as its arm came off in his jaws. He flung it aside and went for its twisting face, but its other hand came up and slammed into his ears so hard he felt them ring as he was thrown to the side. The vampire didn't waste any more time, and came at him immediately, but for the first time that night, Jacob was thinking clearly. All emotion had shut down completely, and he was now guided by nothing but instinct and wolf thought. He had to kill and protect. In order to kill, he had to tear apart the leech, but in order to protect, he couldn't do that here. He grabbed its flailing arm in his merciless jaws and ran. It chased him. It was very fast, but Jacob was undoubtedly faster.

The wolf decided that he needed to go someplace where no people could be injured. Someplace where the things could burn. It headed for a structure ringed by fences, built stone and cement shells that curved up in high walls. Jacob knew he was in the stadium, but the part of him that was Jacob wasn't in primary control at the moment. The wolf didn't care where this place was, as long as it satisfied the requirements, and as long as the leech followed him there. The arm clamped in his muzzle writhed, trying to gain purchase on his fur, to tear at his eyes, but he redoubled his grip and sprinted on, charging through the padlocked entrance with his shoulders turned forward, tearing the gate clean of its hinges. He heard the rush of wind as the vampire cleaved air in his wake, chasing him.

The wolf needed room to maneuver. He headed towards the open field, jaw clamped relentlessly on the piece of leech he'd managed to tear off. He gained the open air in the arena, and spun, hackles raised, claws ripping out huge chunks of turf as he dug in for purchase, and whipped the arm away with a spitting growl just in time to catch the leech off guard, and sink his fangs in its other arms. Cursing, the vampire leaned in to bite him, venom leaking from his fangs and poisoning the air around them, and the wolf dodged out of the way, loosing his grip on the leech's remaining arm but still managing to take a chunk of its body with him. The leech spit out an epitaph in a language Jacob didn't know.

"Watch yourself, cur!" It snarled. "Or I will draw out your end, rather than snapping your neck quickly, as anyone would a rabid dog!"

The wolf just huffed derisively. This bloodsucker really was a stupid creature. It wasn't even smart enough to realize that it was already dead.

With all his human emotions and thought processes safely tucked in the back of his mind, taking care of the leech was surprisingly easy. He was faster, his instinct, when unclouded, were a touch sharper, and while he may not have been stronger, he still had all four limbs, and his eyes were better in the rain. Plus, its judgement was confused by rage and pain, and it kept making stupid mistakes. They were minute, but more than enough for the wolf to take advantage of. It was the missing arm, however, that proved to be its downfall. It couldn't win without it, so all Jacob really had to do was keep his own body between the arm and the leech, and wait for the thing to make a dive for it. At the end of ten minutes, the leech was practically in pieces already, some parts of its body attached to the torso only by mere threads, and the wolf was finished playing. He lunged, and the vampire was simply unable to fend him of anymore, although it tried. Its head came away in his jaws to the sickening sound off tearing rock. The wolf dropped the head on the ground, staring bemusedly at the wide red eyes and gaping mouth, and then at the twitching body a few feet away. Then he trotted over and casually dismembered it.

The part of him that was Jacob remembered that he had torn out of his garage so fast that he'd forgotten his lighter, but pointed out the fact that, in a place like this, they were bound to have a boiler room or a kitchen somewhere. The wolf finally found a suitable place, and paced through the halls, slowly now, carrying pieces of the vampire, and tossing them one by one into the fire. As a precaution, he threw the head in first. Then, just as patiently, he made his way back outside and retraced his steps back to where he had last seen the crying girl. The storm had finally swept in, and it was pouring in earnest now, and when he finally found the spot again, most of the visible evidence had been washed away. He couldn't even smell the blood anymore. The girl was missing, but several police and fire officers were there, trying to take pictures in the downpour, and examining with extreme curiosity the folded over emergency post. While Jacob might have hung around and worried about the girl, and tried to find out a way to make sure she had been taken care of, the more pragmatic wolf observed the situation, acknowledged that it had done everything that it could, and that duty required, and crept silently away. There is no room in the mind of a wolf for second guessing. He ran home.

The wolf's body was tireless, but as he left danger further and further behind, and the familiar sights and scents of La Push, his home territory, drew steadily closer, Jacob's conscience and that of the wolf began to slowly unmeld. By the time he had covered half the distance between the University of Washington and La Push, the wolf had faded mostly into the background, and by the time Jacob reached the stretch of woods leading up to his own house, he was fully himself, and he was shaking. He could no longer put one paw straight in front of the other, and he was almost literally reeling with pain. His felt like the cord in his chest had looped straight around his heart, strangling like a garrote, and each beat only dug it deeper. Soon, he thought, it would beat itself in two. It took every ounce of concentration left to him to phase back, and in the end he stumbled, naked and human, out of the woods and down to his back door. The shift between his two forms hadn't made any difference at all in the degree of agony he felt this time, and he was past caring what time it was or if anyone saw him as he drug himself down the dark hallway. Sleep sounded like an impossible luxury, and his ribs and shoulders felt as though someone had been knocking holes in them with sledgehammers, but, hands trembling, he bypassed the door to his own room and turned the knob to the bathroom instead. He stank, and the scents of blood and vampire felt permanently ingrained into his sinuses. It was repulsive.

Jacob turned on the shower, careless of what he set the tmperature at, and climbed into the tiny tub. It took him three tries to lift his feet over the rim. He reached for the bar of soap, but it slipped out of his hands and fell to the floor, and he hit the ground right behind it. All his energy was gone, and in that moment, he just stopped trying. He let the water fall, and didn't move even when the bathroom door opened up and he heard his father wheel himself into the room.

Billy found him there, naked, slumped on the bottom of the shower, the water running to cold and the curtain pulled back so that the floor looked as though it had been flooded. His eyes were shut, his breathing shallow, and underneath the natural dark of his skin, his face was very pale. There were ominous, ugly purple and green patches discoloring his torso. Billy gasped, and then let his breath out slowly.

"Jesus, Jacob."

One hand on the wall to keep his chair steady on the wet floor, Billy hurried over to his son, reaching out to touch his burning shoulder.

"Jacob! Jake, son, wake up! It's your father. Come on now, son, look at me, please, son..."

It took several minutes for Billy's panicked voice to cut through Jacob's stupor, and even longer for it to produce any movement on his part. Finally, his eyes cracked open, and his head turned, every so slightly, towards the sound of his father's voice. Billy's normal lasse-faire attitude towards his son had vanished completely. His eyes were wide, almost teary, and his face was scrunched in worry.

"Oh, thank God! Jacob, son, are you hurt? Come on now, can you stand? You need to be in bed, you need to rest..."

It was that look, that expression of almost fearful worry for him, that made Jacob listen to what his father said. There was no part of him that didn't hurt anymore, but that didn't mean that he couldn't spare his father some pain. It took a moment for him to remember how movement worked, and then he ponderously levered himself to his feet. Billy hovering anxiously by, hand half extended, although there was no way he could've caught his son if he actually fell, Jacob, tremors still wracking his whole frame, managed to find his room. He paused.

"Come on now, Jake, into bed, son, that's a good boy..."

Bed. He yearned for bed. Maybe it couldn't make him feel better, but at least he could be miserable in peace. And maybe, if he were very lucky, if he went to sleep, he could forget. Maybe he would never wake up. He felt a dim stirring of hope at the thought. He stumbled to the bed and dropped onto it.

"Jacob, my son..." There were tears in Billy's voice now.

Jacob was asleep before they fell.

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_AN: I've had about all the angst I can take. We'll see where this goes in the next chapter._


	9. Reunion

_AN: Thanks for the support everyone! Sorry it took me so long to get this out. I'm just back from a two week vacation back home in the states, but I managed to get this written mostly during layovers in airport terminals. This is more of a mini chapter than anything, but I just wanted to let you guys know that I wasn't dropping this story. Hope you enjoy._

_**Also,** since we're nearing the 200 review mark, how about the same offer as last time? Whoever gets review 200 gets a sneak peak at the next full chapter. Have fun!_

**Ch. 9 Reunion**

He was dreaming.

He must have been, because this world, while wonderful, didn't make any sense.

He was blind, but there was light shining through the dark behind his eyelids. The stuff underneath him was soft, and the air that passed his lips was cool, and invigorating, and he could taste her scent on his tongue. In fact, the air wherever this was was awash with her smell, and it was like floating in a pink, strawberry cloud. But best of all, there was no squeezing, no cord, no pain at all: he could breathe in as deeply as he wanted, and it just sank into his lungs like liquid peace. Who knew that forgetting your pain in a dream really worked? This world had reality beat hands down. He was never,ever, going to wake up...

Something cold touched his brow, and he jerked, accidentally slamming his head against the headboard as he shot upright, eyes snapping open automatically. Well, apparently he wasn't blind, which was probably a good thing, but _now_ there was pain. He hissed, his own bedroom swimming into focus in front of his squinted eyes as he gingerly fingered the newly formed lump on his head. Damn, just when life seemed good.

Someone giggled. Jacob froze all over, then spun, sheets twisting around his hips and nearly pulling him over as he hauled himself to the edge of his bed.

There she was. Her brown hair was pulled back in a simple pony tail, held with a dingy floral scrunchy. Her small hands were pressed to her pink mouth, hiding her shocked little grin. Her eyes were wide, and while she was obviously trying to look compassionate instead of amused, she was failing miserable, and more giggles were escaping even as he gaped at her. A wet washcloth was dangling from her right fingers. She was really there, not two feet from him. Her. His Bella.

He wanted to grab her, to hug her, to pick her up and tell her he missed her and then yell at her to never, ever do that to him again, but his body wouldn't move. He just sat there with his mouth hanging open as she gave up the struggle and laughed harder and harder at him, trying to get his brain to produce something; to come up with any thoughts at all. Finally, his mouth moved, and what came out of it was just a whisper:

"Bella?"

Her eyes were dancing as she smiled at him, straightening up after being doubled over in laughter. "Sorry, Big Brother." She panted, still getting her breath back. "I was trying to make you feel better. I didn't know you'd do that." Her smile quivered, and she snorted with laughter again.

Jacob's "on" switch finally flipped. "Bells!" He crowed, reaching eagerly for her and yanking her into his lap. She squealed as he pulled her off the floor, but didn't object, and curled against him as if she'd never left, purring like a cat between giggles. Jacob buried his face in her hair, squeezed her as tightly as he could without hurting her, and just breathed. He changed his mind. This, this was so much better than any dream. In fact, if this was what he got for waking up, he was never going to sleep again.

"I missed you." She murmured. Jacob's heart, free from the dragging weight if the past month, lept.

"I missed you, too. Bells." He spoke into her hair. "More than you know, honey."

Bella squirmed, and managed to get him to loosen his grip enough so that she could meet his gaze. "Billy said you were sick." She said, amusement fading into an expression of concern. "You looked terrible when I got here. You had me worried, Big Brother. Are you OK? Maybe you should lay back down."

Jacob thought about that, remembering what happened between his wolf and the basalt skinned leech as if seeing something filmed through someone else's eyes, and then screened on a snowy TV set. He winced as the face of the girl, covered in blood and contorted in pain, flashed into his mental slide show. He would have to follow up on her later. He also seemed to remember having the shit beat out of him, and he winced again. But all of that seemed to have healed, and aside from a little stiffness, he was sure there wasn't a trace of those injuries left. He made another mental note to ask Billy how long he'd been out. But, more than anything, that corrosive pull, that searing pain in his chest was gone. He could breath feely for the first time in over a month, and the air in his lungs smelled like strawberries, and Bella. It was sweet, sweet.

"I was bad. But, honey, right now, I've never felt better."

She beamed at him, and the took her small face in both hands and affectionately kissed her forehead. "So, you thinking about being a nurse when you grow up? Cause I got to tell ya, this isn't the greatest way to wake a patient."

"Shut up." She huffed. "It's not my fault you nearly broke your head."

"Trust me, honey, it is." He grinned at her scowl, and traced it with a fingertip just because he could. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, Bells, but aren't you supposed to be in Florida? How did you get into my bedroom?"

The girl sighed and tugged his arms until he had positioned them to her satisfaction, and then settled against him like he was her favorite chair as she explained. "I got sick, too, you know." She began. "Dad thinks maybe we got the same thing, because Billy said your chest was hurting, and mine was, too. He said you sounded worse, but maybe we gave each other something." She paused. "Mom thinks I was making it up, though."

Jacob shuddered and cringed at the though of his Bella going through what he had, and then frowned. "Wait, what? Charlie didn't say anything about your chest hurting. He only said you were acting homesick! And why wouldn't your mom believe you?"

Jacob's chin was resting on top of Bella's head, so her couldn't see her expression, but he just knew that she was rolling her eyes. "She thought I was making it up, or imagining it. Maybe she didn't tell Charlie, or just downplayed it. You know, said that I was homesick, but that the rest was all in my head."

Jacob's frown deepened. "Why would she think that?"

Bella shifted away from his lap, pulling herself out from under his arms while gnawing on her lip. "She though I was imagining a lot of things."

"Bella," Jacob said, his voice taking on a slight warning tone.

The girl sighed and tucked her legs underneath his body, facing him as she spoke. "Renee took me to a psychiatrist because the normal doctor couldn't find anything wrong with me. The lady said that I was "having problems adjusting" to my parents' divorce, and that I was getting 'stress pains.'" Jacob's mouth dropped slightly. Then he snorted.

"Believe me, honey, if you really did have what I had, "stress pain" doesn't even begin to cover it."

"I didn't buy it either." She grinned a little at him, her nose wrinkling. "But, hey, I'm just a kid. They don't listen to me." Jacob frowned again, but she continued. "Especially since..."

She trailed off, and Jacob waited. After a few minutes he leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees, and made an impatient "continue" gesture with his hand. She grimaced.

"They think I'm delusional."

Jacob blinked. "What?"

"They think I have an imaginary friend." She blushed, and crossed her arms over her chest. "My best friend. Just because I never introduced him to Renee, she think he doesn't exist. You know, that I made him up 'cause I was lonely, or something." She looked him in the eye, and her expression was half pleading, half defensive. She was chewing her lip, obviously sorting through what she wanted to say. "Big Brother," She hesitated. "Big Brother, you don't think I'm weird, or, or... abnormal, do you?"

"What?" Jacob spluttered again. "No! Why would I think something like that?"

"It's just... It's just that, I mean, I've never introduced you to him either, and I wondered if you believed me... I mean, he's kind of... a private guy... I mean, I wasn't not introducing him to you guys because I was hiding... him... or anything, but... He's... shy..." Jacob winced at her lie. Her face was miserably red and her eyes were downcast, focused on a string she was teasing out of his cheap bedspread, making the fabric pucker. Jacob felt like an ass, watching her dig herself deeper, when he was the one who knew how far down the hole really went.

"Bells," he cut her off gently. "I don't believe that your imagining things, I don't think that you're weird, and I never thought that you were crazy. You don't have to explain yourself to me. I trust you." Bella met his eyes again, her face a mask of relief, and he had to avert his own eyes abruptly, so she wouldn't read the sudden guilt in them. If it wasn't for him, she wouldn't have a thing to hide. She didn't even know the whole truth, and she was already lying for him.

As he stewed uncomfortably, Bella sighed again. "I think maybe he forgot about me."

Jacob froze in shock. "Why in the world would you say that? I thought he was your best friend."

"Well yeah, he is, but when I got back last night, I went to the place where we always meet each other, and he-" her voice and her head dropped simultaneously in sadness. "-he wasn't there."

Of course he hadn't been there. He'd been here in this bed, simmering in three kinds of hells. "Oh honey," he frantically began damage control. "Maybe he just didn't know you were back yet."

Bella's face burned darker. "I know, but, Big Brother, I can't call him. I, uh, I don't have his phone number." Right. The oversized wolf she thought he was would have trouble with all those tiny buttons. "I was really hoping he'd be there. I don't know where else to find him." She sounded genuinely distressed. Christ, this was one of the most awkward conversations he's had in his life. Why, why, _why,_couldn't he just tell her the truth? He fought to sound normal as he answered.

"Well, if that's the case honey, then why don't you go back tonight? Maybe someone saw you and told him you were back, or something. Anyway, if it means that much to you, you should keep trying, right? I'm sure he wants to see you."

Bella still looked apprehensive, but also somewhat mollified. "Yeah, I guess." She smiled at him, and the tension in his body miraculously seemed to evaporate. "Thanks, Big Brother."

"Anytime." He grinned, and pulled her to him, ready to just hold her for a little while and and forget the rest of the world, but, to his surprise, she squirmed away. A little stung, he found it hard to school his expression to something light and teasing. "What? Can't I even get a hug from my little sister?"

She was embarrassed again now, her cheeks flushed red. "Of course you can." She mumbled. "But, Billy says you haven't left the bed for a few days, and, um, I can kinda tell..." He stared at her blankly. she turned, if anything, even redder. "Um... I could go run you a bath or something..."

Oh. _Oh._ Well, fuck.

"No, that's OK, Bells." for once in his life, he might have been redder than she was, but he grinned anyway. "I'll go dump my stinky ass in the shower, and then how about we get some breakfast afterwards?"

Her nose wrinkled. "It's lunch time, for one thing, Big Brother, and for another thing, _eewwwww! "_

He laughed, mussed her hair, and headed towards the bathroom.


	10. When The Day Met The Night

_AN: I'm really sorry for the posting confusion on this one. Let's just say that I had some editing issues that were entirely my fault, and I sincerely apologize. _

_Thanks go out as usual to all my wonderful reviewers and favorite-ers. __Extra thank go to my new Beta **leelator, **who completely went above and beyond fot this chapter, and if for some reason you haven't read her awesomely hilarious fic **How To Seduce A Werewolf, **then what in the world are you doing waiting your time with mine? Go check hers out! _

_The song mentioned in this chapter is actually a pretty cheerful tune by Panic! At the Disco, and it just happens to have some lines that are eerily apt for an imprint story._

_Also, when you finish reading, review and let me know if you saw it coming._

**When the Day Met the Night **

The very first thing Jacob's eyes saw as he padded into the living room, barefoot, hair still curling damply against his neck from the shower, was his father's back, sitting ram-rod stiff in his wheel-chair, shoulders clutched in tension. Puzzled, Jacob cleared his throat, and when Billy flinched and carefully turned his chair to face his son, Jacob was struck by the deep lines of worry that seemed, overnight, to have etched themselves into his father's face. Exhaustion and relief welled up in the older man's eyes. Jacob was even more stunned when his normally taciturn father reached up a hand to brush the sudden moisture from them.

The heady euphoria that he'd been floating in- an instant and uncontrollable response to seeing Bella again- snapped in one moment, the pieces of it floating away from him like ice breaking up on a river. Now he felt cold, and a little sick. Appalled, he dropped to his knees in front of his father, taking Billy's weathered hands in his own.

"Dad," he pleaded. "Dad, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

Billy took a deep breath; his eyes flickeredover his son's face with a deepening look of relief. To Jacob's surprise, Billy prised his fingers away, and cupped the younger man's jaw in a surprisingly strong grip. Relief gave way to probing investigation, and investigation somehow turned into pained comprehension. Hairs on the back of his neck rising, Jacob opened his mouth, but was stopped just as he was drawing in breath to speak by a sound coming from the other room. Over the clatter of utensils on metal, and the rustle of what was probably Charlie reading a newspaper, a voice started singing in a low hum. It was so quiet that Billy probably wouldn't even have been able to pick up on it, but Jacob could catch every word.

_"When the Moon fell in love with the Sun ... "_

It was Bella. Of course it was. Jacob caught the subtle smell of strawberries hiding in the scent of the lunch she was cooking. As he breathed, he was taken aback by a surge of that same euphoria that had carried him like some kind of smiling zombie through his shower. He shut his eyes briefly to try and fight it off. He felt his pupils, against all control of his own, roll in her direction underneath his eyelids. It was a strange and unsettling feeling, and the cold trickling down his spine seemed to settle into a lump in his stomach.

_" ... he looked like he was barely hanging on. But her eyes saved his life ... "_

He swallowed the feeling and snapped his gaze back to Billy, just in time to be met with his normal, if a little guarded, grin.

"It's good to have you back, son," he said, sharply patting Jacob on the cheek. "The next time you decide to sleep for three days, I'm tossing you out and turning your room into a closet."

Jacob's spine and shoulder's slowly relaxed, his mind cleared, and the tiny hairs on his arms and neck settled back into place. He snorted, "You mean it isn't one already?"

_" ... So he said: 'Would it be alright if we just sat and talked for a little while? If in exchange for your time, I give you this smile?' ... "_

Billy watched apprehensively as his son's grin frayed a little at the edges.

_" ... So she said: 'That's okay, as long as you can make a promise not to break my little heart, and leave me all alone, in the summer.' ... "_

"I'm sorry I scared you, Dad."

Billy smiled, and Jacob wondered why the expression seemed a little sad. "It's okay, Jake. I know you couldn't help it."

_" ... he was just hanging around, then he fell in love... "_

"You should know that I'm proud of you- we're all proud of you-"

_" ... and he didn't know how, but he couldn't get out... "_

Billy swallowed. "And, son, there's something else you should know as well-"

_" ... he was just hanging around; then he fell in love... "_

"Jacob!"

Father and son jumped apart. From the kitchen came a startled bang!, and the sound of what was probably an elbow making unexpected contact with the metal handle of a frying pan, followed by a furious "Ow, ow, _ow!"_ Billy and Jacob winced. Maneuvering his chair around the battered coffee table, Billy followed the sound into the kitchen, Jacob right behind him. The two of them found a Bella, disgruntled and now liberally smeared with sauce, being helped off the floor by an apologetic Harry Clearwater. Meanwhile Charlie sat at the table holding a newspaper close to his face to hide his twitching shoulder and moustache.

Bella scowled, and pointed one tiny, accusatory finger at her "sibling."

"Not. One. Word."

Fighting back laughter, Jacob crossed his heart and smiled benevolently at her. She cast him a glare of deepest suspicion, then straightened her clothes, discreetly dusted her bottom, and started mopping up spaghetti sauce off the floor with a wad of paper towels as if it had done her some serious personal offense. Jacob was about to help when a beefy hand landed a blow to his shoulder. He turned to see the smiling face of Charlie Swan.

"Good to see you back on your feet, kid." The older man shook Jacob's hand, smiling broadly. "You gave us all one hell of a scare. I thought for a while that I was going to have to come down here with the lights flashing and kidnap you just to get you to a damn doctor. But I guess Billy was right, and you pulled through on your own after all."

"I was just bringing Bells down to help out, thinking you could use some company on your sick bed. Then a few hours later, she strolls back out of your room and says you're fine. Good for you, son!" He slid his long time best friend a sly glance. "Although, if it had been my kid, I wouldn't have banked on things working out so easy."

"Oh, lighten up, Charlie!" Harry boomed. "We all knew he was going to pull through it fine." Behind Charlie's back, Jacob gave his elder a skeptical glare, and was met with a slow wink in return.

Billy chuckled. "It was all under control, Charlie. After all, the kid's got the Black family constitution!" He thumped his own chest soundly. "It takes more than some mangy virus to take out a Black!"

"Says the man in the wheelchair," Charlie huffed, but without any malice. Billy just shrugged, and turned towards his son.

"Anyway, Jacob, I have some things I need to get in town. Charlie was going to take me, and leave Bella here to look after you, if you hadn't woken up yet. Now, I know you just got up, but if you want to get out of the house for a while... ."

Jacob raked his hand through his still damp hair. "Do you need me to help you with anything, dad? I feel just fine now. I don't mind going out, but I don't mind staying and keeping Bells out of trouble either."

An indignant _humph!_ came from the other side of the kitchen, which Jacob steadfastly ignored.

"Actually, Jake, I was hoping to have a word with you, if you don't mind. It won't take long- just some tribe business. If Chief Swan is still okay with taking your dad around, do you think you could spare me a minute?"

Charlie's eyebrows climbed his forehead in inquiry, but said only, "It's fine with me, as long as somebody stays with Bells. I don't want her left alone."

Jacob was curious, too. He had no idea what Harry could have to say to him so soon after waking up from a three-day coma, but "tribe business" was surely a not-so-subtle clue. He grinned and shrugged amicably at the three men in front of him, but, as his eyes landed again on Chief Swan an unexpected train of thought made him pause. Although he usually viewed Bella's dad with a good deal of respect, Charlie's last sentence really didn't sit well.

_This from the man who let his only daughter sneak off everyday for three years to get lost in the woods and play with a giant, killer wolf, and hasn't noticed. And he was perfectly okay with leaving her in a house alone with me when I wasn't even capable of talking to her, much less taking care of her. Does he only play the parent once a week or something?_

Then he remembered the affection in the older man's handshake, and felt ashamed. He shook his head to clear it of traitorous thoughts.

The two parents were eventually ushered from the small red house with "Take care, kids!" from one and "Don't break anything, Bella!" from the other. The girl huffed and crossed her arms over her flat chest. Jacob chuckled, and she caught his gaze. She stared at him for a minute, and then, slowly and deliberately, crossed her eyes. Jake laughed harder.

"Be careful, Bells, or you'll get stuck like that."

She sniffed. "No I won't, Big Brother. Liar, liar, pants on fire." She childishly stuck her tongue out at him.

He snickered, and rolled his eyes. "I know you are, but what am I?" he taunted in a voice like pig stuck in a pipe.

She stuffed a fist in her mouth to hold back the giggles. "Jerk."

"Dummy."

"Meany."

"Butthead."

"I'm rubber and you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks onto you!"

Jacob was about to retort when a throat discreetly cleared behind them. They turned simultaneously. Face lighting with a blush for the second time that day, Jacob reflected that it should have been illegal for someone as jovial as Harry Clearwater to wear such an evil smirk. The elder raised one bushy eyebrow, and at that moment, Bella brushed against Jake's hand as she hid her mortified blush behind his broad back. His skin jumped at the contact.

Jacob became aware that he still had a stupid grin fixed firmly on his face, in spite of his embarrassment, and felt the lump of coldness in his stomach reappear and solidify a little more. Harry coughed pointedly as Jacob tried to wipe that stupid smile off his uncooperative face. "I know you're getting ready to eat lunch, so I'll try to keep this quick... ."

"Oh!" Bella gave a little start, and it suddenly disturbed him how distinctly he could feel it. "Lunch! I almost forgot!" She scurried off, and Harry, (evil smirk gone, thank heaven), gestured Jacob into the adjoining living room.

A minute later, Jacob's hand was taken prisoner by an older man for the third time that day. Harry was shaking it vigorously, and to his total bafflement, Jacob saw him go a little glassy eyed.

"I know I probably should've waited- given you a little more time with the girl, to recover- but I know what it must have cost you to do what you did, given the state that you were in, and I just had to thank you as soon as I could... ."

"Um, sir," Jacob interrupted, trying to find a way of getting his hand back without injuring the older man. "You know I have no idea what you're talking about, right?" He paused, shaking circulation back into the hand he'd regained, and said. "Wait, what was that about the girl? What girl? What does that have to do with me getting better?"

Harry hesitated, and Jacob's sensitive ears heard his heart rate pick up, even as his face dropped. "Jacob," he began in a much calmer voice. "We haven't been able to collect many details, but we know you fought, and hopefully, killed a Cold One on the University of Washington campus three days ago, correct?"

"Yes." Jacob answered, still puzzled. His brow furrowed as he fought to get all the details he hadn't had time to process into some kind of logical order. Mindful of the innocent girl in the other room, Jacob lowered his voice and his eyes became unfocused as he recalled that night.

"I ripped its hand off and used that to lure it to the stadium. When I got it there, I tore it to pieces, and burned it in a furnace. Then I backtracked to check... ."

Suddenly, he gasped, springing rigidly off the couch. "Oh God! The girl! I went back, but she was gone, and there were a bunch of emergency workers there, and I couldn't even think anymore, I couldn't follow." He sank back into the couch, body going lax, head dropping onto his open palms. "God, I hope she's alright."

"She's alive," Harry sighed. Jacob's head perked back up. "And she'll be able to stay that way. There'll be some scarring, but at least she gets to go back to her family whole." Jacob shook his head, the feeling of self-disgust that had nearly overwhelmed him that night coming back for an encore. "We can't thank you enough, Jacob." Harry's voice was thick with emotion, and Jacob was mystified.

"What are you talking about?"

Harry assessed him shrewdly. "You don't know who it was that you saved, do you?"

Jacob's mouth went totally dry. He had to swallow several times before he could make anything come out. "No. I wasn't... I couldn't... I could barely... Jesus," his terror was rising. "Harry, tell me I didn't let Leah-"

'No, Jacob, it wasn't Leah." Harry said gently. He gripped the younger man's arm and squeezed. "You saved her," he said firmly. "We would have lost her completely. She would've been killed, or worse, she could've become... become like _them_... ." He visibly shuddered. "Don't think you let anyone down, Jacob. You were practically at death's door yourself, and you saved our girl from a fate _worse_ than death. A few scars is a small price to pay, even if she doesn't understand that herself, yet. As I said, my family can never, ever thank you enough."

"But ... " Jacob stuttered, eyes wide. In his mind was a picture of the girl, her skin split and bleeding and her expression grotesquely contorted in pain, shifting back and forth between her face and that of his precious little Bella's, like some kind of flip-book for the deranged. "If it wasn't Leah, then who... ?"

"You met her once, a long time ago. I guess you don't remember." Harry sighed. "She's my niece, Jacob. Her name is Emily Young."

* * *

Lightning flashed in the hot summer sky, but Bella hurried on through the brush anyway, refusing to be daunted by the rain. The moist air coated her lungs as she drew breath in hard little pants. It wasn't raining yet, but it was surely going to, and when it came, it was would hit the earth hard. The pre-storm tension in the air wound her nerves even tighter, until she was sure they could've been plucked like guitar strings. Her heart was clenching in excitement and fear, but the adrenaline pumping through her veins buoyed her. That, coupled with the encouragement she'd gotten from her Big Brother earlier that day, kept her going.

Jake told her not to give up, to try again, and have a little faith. His face was sad and serious after Harry left. Bella wanted to ask what they talked about, but thought the better of it. Instead they ate pasta with her second batch of sauce, and washed the dishes together. They decided to watch a film to pass the time instead of working in the garage, so he could take it easy on his first day out of bed. Not ten minutes into the movie, her Big Brother had pulled her into his lap, and squeezed her tight, and she hadn't objected.

She had missed him more than she'd thought possible. His all-encompassing heat and familiar scent were enough to make her feel that the world was finally back on track, and she basked in it. Halfway through the flick, (which was some teenaged audience piece of drivel that she was sure he wasn't watching), he kissed her hair, gave a heavy sigh, and asked her to try again to find Wolf. He promised that everyone missed and loved her, and that her fears were silly. He told her that Wolf would have to be crazy not to want to see her again. And then he teased, saying that he hoped she had better taste in friends than to choose a crazy person to hang out with. She laughed, but confessed to still being a little scared of him not being there. He sighed once more and kissed her again, on the forehead this time.

Bella like it when he did that. His mouth was so hot that she could feel the impression of his kiss for minutes before the heat faded, and it made her feel loved like no one else could manage but her Wolf.

He _had_ to be there. He just had to be.

The closer she got to "their" clearing, the harder it was to breathe. By the time she was just about there, she was nearly hyperventilating, and had to spend several minutes bent at the waist and slowly counting to a hundred until she calmed down. Gulping a measured lungful of air, Bella straightened up, let it out slowly, and then touched the place on her forehead where her Big Brother has kissed her earlier. She could do this.

With a visibly trembling hand, she pushed back the same branch she had pushed back nearly every day up until she'd left, and stepped through.

And nearly cried.

He was there.

His fur gleamed in the early moonlight and curled every which way in the raking, whip lashing winds. His ears were perked, his tail was twitching across the ground anxiously, and his eyes were trained on the exact spot where she had just emerged.

He'd been waiting for her.

Bella stumbled forward, emotion and the stinging winds both bringing tears to her eyes. One hand extended to him in a gesture of longing.

He whined. Breaking, Bella ran to him with a sob, throwing her arms around his neck, burying her face in his musky-smelling fur, laughing even as she cried. The wolf's head, at least three times the size of her own, twisted around, and he nuzzled at her comfortingly, an inquiring growl rumbling from his throat. She pulled back, sniffling and smearing away her own tears with the back of one thin wrist. Meeting his large brown eyes, she smiled hugely as the first drops of the storm started to fall, melting into her tear tracks.

"Hey, Wolf," she whispered. "I missed you."

He rumbled his agreement, pushing his head affectionately against her a little too hard, making her stumble. "Hey!" she hiccoughed, still working the tears out of her voice. "No fair, you big bully." Eyes soft with love, she ran her fingers slowly through his fur and reached up to scratch behind his ears until he blinked sleepily in pleasure. Then she wrapped her arms around his jaws in the special way she had, so she could kiss his forehead. The wolf sighed in sympathy and understanding, the heat of it searing her skin through her wet shirt. Pulling back, she smiled again, even though the rain was starting to fall harder, and her soaked hair was sticking to her forehead. She never stopped stroking his neck.

"My mom sent me home," she confessed. "I missed you so much it made me sick, you jerk. I even had to go to the doctor, and they tried to tell me you weren't real. Can you believe it?" The wolf scoffed, clearly offended.

"I know, right?" The great brown eyes softened, and he nuzzled at her neck and stomach questioningly. "No, I'm okay now. I felt better as soon as I got on the plane. I knew I'd get to see you soon, and my dad, and my Jake. I knew I'd be okay." He blinked understandingly, and she smiled, a little more gently this time. "I really, really, _really_ missed you, Wolf."

The wolf licked her ear. It was sloppy, and she scrunched her face in protest as she wiped it off, but she appreciated the sentiment.

Th rain was coming down in buckets now, and thunder crashed as lightning marched across the sky. Bella probably wouldn't have been able to see him through the curtain of water if they hadn't been so close to each other. She squinted up against the stinging drops as he stood and looked at her enquiringly.

"Please... . I don't really want to go home yet," she admitted softly, with a shrug. He peered closely at her, and she hunched her shoulders defensively, even as she huddled into his side for shelter. "I wont get sick. I'll change my clothes when I get home, and everything," she said, crossing her heart with the same gesture her Big Brother had used earlier that day. "I promise."

He stared at her for a beat longer... , and then he laughed. The little girl grinned in response as he lay back down and nudged her firmly into his broad flanks, so he could curl up around her, tail brushing his face. The storm couldn't touch her there. She hummed happily, relishing the smell of him. She didn't stay there all night, but even in her bed later, changed into fresh, dry pajamas, and tucked between sheets that smelled like laundry detergent, she could still feel the heat from his fur. It always lingered, just like her Big Brother's kisses.

* * *

It was well past midnight when Jacob, thoroughly drenched and mopping water from his eyes, crossed the threshold of his house. After his Wolf had seen Bella home safely, he'd taken a long run, nominally checking the area for vampire activity, but really just taking the opportunity to be alone with his thoughts, which were getting more and more complicated by the minute.

Jacob was not a stupid man. There had been hints before, but his recent "illness"- starting right from the moment Bella left, and his miraculous recovery just a few hours after she walked back through his door- was about as subtle a clue as a hammer dropped on the head. This wasn't normal, and it certainly wasn't healthy. He'd been in too much pain up until today to be able to think his way through it clearly, but as soon as she'd left, he'd pretty much fallen apart. Nothing, not his responsibility as a protector, not his love for his family, not even his own will power, had been enough to overcome the fact that he needed her. _Needed _her more than air, more than water, more than his own blood and bones. And it scared the hell out of him.

Jacob had never, and could never, think of Bella in a sexual way without becoming violently nauseous. He was sure that what he felt for her was a completely platonic and innocent love, but it was one hundred percent overriding everything else. It was so bad that he'd actually gone through some kind of fucked up withdrawal when she'd left. How sick was that? And what was more, she'd supposedly gotten ill as well. So did that mean that she felt the same way about him? Was a thirteen-year-old even capable of feeling like that? Her reactions today and tonight seemed to indicate that she could, but she was still only thirteen-fucking-years-old. The elders, even his own father, were dropping hints about something big, and he was still totally in the dark. But, whatever this was, it was wrong on so many different levels that he didn't even know where to start.

But he needed her. He couldn't imagine not seeing her. And she needed him. Fucked up withdrawal symptoms aside, Bella needed at least one older person in her life who noticed when she disappaeared in the middle of a thunderstorm, and what was more, knew where she went. Not to mention, his sudden withdrawal from her life would completely break her heart. He knew that, as surely as he knew his name was Jacob Black.

He couldn't leave it like this. There were so many questions, and he had a feeling that behind the peeling paint of his front door there were answers. He just wasn't sure he could handle knowing what they were just now. The last couple of months had been hell, and all he wanted was to relax with his Bells and get his life back on track. Was that really so much to ask?

It should have been wrong, all of it. But it didn't feel that way. How could it be wrong if, when they were together, they were both so happy?

Jacob's spinning mind was right about one thing. When he finally arrived home, exhausted with all his thoughts chasing their own tails in his brain, his father was waiting up for him. This time, there was no subterfuge of woodcarving, no false look of innocence to excuse his being there.

Billy looked Jacob straight in the eye, and said, "Welcome home, son. I need to talk to you."

Jacob shivered, as the cold ball in his stomach grew larger. Then he straightened his shoulders.

"I know." He paused, eyes on the carpet as he thought things through. "Dad, that thing you're about to tell me ... What'll happen if you just ... don't?"

"Don't tell you?"

"Yes."

"Well, no one will die, if that's what you mean," Billy admitted grudgingly. "But I think not listening could be a mistake."

"I appreciate that you're trying to look out for me, Dad, I really do." He took a deep breath. "But, I can't take it, okay? Whatever it is, I honestly just can't handle it. If it wont get me, or anybody else, killed or seriously injured, can I please just ... not know?"

Billy's jaw clenched and unclenched several times, and his eyes never left his son's strained face, until, at last, they dropped to his lap.

"I'll talk to the other elders, son. But, you can't put this off forever. Sooner or later, this is something you're going to have to face."

"I know. I know. But, just ... for now ... this is all more than enough. Just give me a little more time. _Please."_

With a sigh, Billy nodded.

"Thanks, Dad." And Billy knew he meant it.

Jacob slipped into his tiny bedroom, shut the door, and leaned against it, closing his eyes. In his head, he took all of it in: the questions, the uncertainty, the cold ball in his stomach, his fear for his own normalcy, and his acknowledgement of his ridiculous, overwhelming _need _for Bella. He shoved them in a mental box labeled "Things Not To Think About Again Unless You Absolutely Have To ... Ever." and shut the lid. Doubt that what he was doing was the right thing assailed him briefly, but he grabbed that thought, shoved it in the box, too, and firmly turned the key in the lock. What would be would be. He may not have had any control over just about anything in his life ever since he was sixteen, but he could at least control this. Responsibility be damned. This time _he_ would choose.

He was going to be happy.

With a blessedly clear head, Jacob went to sleep.


	11. Breathe In

_AN: You know, I never actually intended to take a two month hiatus. I apolagize. You guys have been great, and I feel really guilty for not updating earlier. My only excuse is that life happens._

_As usual, thanks so much to those of you who have reviewed and PM'd me about this story, but more so, thanks to all of you who sent messages after the tsunami and quake. I do live in Japan, but fortunately, I'm pretty far south from where the bad stuff happened. Everyone I know has managed to stay safe, and I'm moving back to the states in a couple of months in any case. All the same, I was really moved by the support you guys offered to someone you don't even know. Thank you so much. Hope this chapter doesn't dissapoint. _

_Extra thanks with tasty sprinkles on top to my beta, **leelator,** author of the amazing fic "How To Seduce A Werewolf." This story would suck so much more without her._

_I'll try not to keep you guys waiting this long again. Enjoy._

Chapter 11 : **Breathe In**

Thank God for older brothers.

This situation was a tricky one, and she needed help. It involved a certain amount of mystery, possibly unlawful conduct, and one of the most incomprehensible and difficult to understand creatures on the face of the earth. A boy. A boy she liked, but didn't know all that well, and one whom she also wasn't entirely sure was operating under the strict letter of the law. That ruled out talking to Charlie. However, the problem was a little beyond what she thought she could deal with on her own. She needed some advice, which was exactly what prompted her to voluntarily go fishing with her dad, even if it meant sitting on a muddy dock for hours, her hair getting increasingly frizzy in the sticky humidity. So she watched Charlie and his pals get drunk on cheap beer, because fishing trips meant fishing buddies, and fishing buddies, to Charlie, meant Billy Black, and Billy, to Bella, meant Jacob.

Thank God for Jacob.

After she spent ten minutes in the bathroom trying to run a comb through her hair without breaking the teeth off in the puffy, tangled strands, and a further fifteen by the door scraping mud off her once-upon-a-time white shoes, Bella decided that enough was enough. She ducked out the front door, which squeaked in protest behind her as it slapped against the worn boards of the house, and trotted across the familiar landscape of the Black's back yard, dodging the semi-permanent mud puddles in Jacob's workspace by habit, and approached the ramshackle little red building that served as Jake's garage. The closer she got, the more clearly defined the off-color lyrics of some metal song became- probably something by Atreyu, or Anthrax, or one of those other bands named after a horrible 'A' disease- and she grimaced. Apparently, Jacob wasn't working alone. She really didn't want to do this with an audience.

The scene she encountered when she opened the door was about what she expected. Her big brother's bare, dirty feet and long legs were sticking out from under somebody else's vehicle, and mysterious clinking sounds were coming from somewhere inside the carriage. An oil-stained hand snaked out, groped on the ground for a wrench, and disappeared again. A lanky young man was half obscured by the raised hood, his ponytail in imminent danger of getting caught on something. A third, bulkier boy was slouched in the front seat, one leg propped on the dash, and the other sneakily shifting tools out of Jacob's reach with his big toe. The music was loud enough to cover the sound of her entry and any attempt at a greeting she might have made. Wincing at the pounding in her eardrums, Bella expertly threaded her way through the debris littering the floor and flicked off the radio. Silence rang, and she sighed in relief.

"What the hell ... ?" a voice said.

Bella turned around only to be faced with a grinning Quil, loping easily over to her and sweeping her up in a grimy hug. Her feet left the floor and the air left her lungs, yet she still managed to squeak, "Hey, Quil."

"Princess!" he shouted in her ear. "It's been too damn long. Where the hell have you been?"

"The friggin' sunshine state," she mumbled uncomfortably, squirming until he let her go. She still looked remarkably like a lobster for a good two weeks after she got back. "And don't call me that," she tacked on as a quick afterthought.

"Don't take it personal," came Embry's muffled voice from under the hood. "He doesn't mean you're prissy. He just means that Jake spoils you like an old lady with a pet shih-tzu."

"Shut the hell up, Call," Jacob snarled, slinking out from under the chassis and flicking his greasy rag at Embry's back. Embry twitched out of the way, only for his elbow to knock into the flexible rod that held up the hood. It fell with a _thunk! _onto the back of his head, and he clutched at it, letting loose a string of words that made Bella cringe. Quil doubled over, guffawing. Jacob's mouth quirked, then his eyes flicked to Bella, and he quickly covered his amusement with a scowl. "Don't use that kind of language around Bella, dumbass."

Quil snorted even as he flicked tears of merriment from his eyes. "You're one to talk, asswipe."

"That goes for you, too, Ateara." Jacob began to approach Bella, but when he got within a few feet of her, suddenly, he froze, nostrils flaring, before shaking his head like a dog shucking water. Mystified, Bella watched as he recovered and then grinned, opening his arms. Bella raised her eyebrows. Jacob paused. She pointed. He rolled his eyes. She tapped her foot and made an impatient noise, arms crossed. Jacob sighed, stripped off his T-shirt, used it to quickly wipe the majority of the oil and grime from his skin, and held open his arms again, this time for inspection.

"Better?" he asked sarcastically.

"Yep." She smiled with glowing approval before skipping forward for a bear hug.

"Nope." Embry snickered, tugging at his ponytail, which had finally become entangled on something in the cars depths the way that it threatened to do all morning. "Totally not a princess at all."

"Shut the hell up, Call," Bella parroted from her vantage point with her chin on Jake's shoulder and her feet off the ground.

"I think somebody's a bad influence on her," Quil chuckled. "Don't worry, Princess. When you get a little older, you might start liking your men dirty." Bella blushed, Embry fell forward in laughter, and Jacob growled so deep that Bella felt her chest vibrate. His fingers dug in at her waist until it was almost painful. She squeaked in discomfort, but he didn't seem to hear her.

"Dipshits," he muttered. Recollecting himself and reining in his ire with obvious effort, he shot a faintly anxious glance at Bella. "Er, you won't repeat that, will you, honey?"

"Which part?" she asked. His grip was still hard enough to be a little painful, and she wiggled until he let her down. He immediately went from pissed off to concerned and apologetic, until she opened her mouth again. "Asswipe, or dipshit?"

Quil an Embry both choked with hilarity, and Jacob actually blushed. Quil ambled over, hand outstretched for a high five, but Jacob snatched her back before Quil could get within six feet. Scowling, he chastised her from the side of his mouth. "Traitor."

For some reason, Quil and Embry were getting on his last nerve today. He was fuming, and Bella was baffled to see his upper lip and nose twitching, as if he smelled something bad. Before she could ask him what his problem was, he scooped her up a second time, dodging his best friends' quips like unfriendly fire, and setting her down on the half-collapsed fold-out bed he kept in the corner.

Bella perched expertly on the end that didn't have springs sticking out of it, and said, "You know, one day, you're going to have to let me walk across this floor on my own two feet."

Jacob snorted while bending down to fetch them both sodas. "Not today, I don't. I wouldn't trust you to walk across this garage without breaking something anymore than I'd expect an elephant to make it across a minefield without loosing a leg. "

"Dipshit." She swiped a soft drink from his hand.

"I told you not to repeat that."

"Fine. Jerk. Anyway," Bella pushed on, "I wanted to talk to you about something, Big Brother."

Jacob sprawled comfortably on the scuffed floor at her feet. "Shoot."

* * *

She smelled different today. He noticed it as soon as he approached her. It wasn't something he could identify immediately. Sitting close to her like this, watching as Bella's forehead puckered, and her eyes dropped while she tried to put her story into words, he breathed deeply, attempting to figure it out. Her normal, strawberry-like scent was there, but now it seemed deeper, richer ..., ripe? And there was a note of something else, something unsettling, something he _knew,_ but had a feeling he didn't want to place.

He was shaken out of his contemplation as, with a serious frown on her face, Bella clicked her fingers in front of his nose. "Big Brother," she snapped. "Are you listening to me?"

"Yeah, of course. Sorry," he stuttered. "It's just that you kind of... um ... smell funny today." The look of indignant shock on her face was not prepossessing. "I mean, did you, um, start wearing perfume or something?"

"No," she scowled at him. "Are you trying to get me back for what I said when you woke up the other day? If I stink, it's probably because I just spent the whole day fishing- which I only did to come see _you,_ by the way. You don't have to be mean about it. It's not my fault." She still looked angry, but her cheeks were reddening and her eyes were looking a little watery. Shit.

"Oh, honey, no. That's not what I meant. I didn't mean to say you smelled _bad,_" he assured her frantically. "I just thought it was different, that's all. I'm probably just making it up. Smelling things." He laughed awkwardly at himself, because he simply could not stand that look of threatening tears in her eyes. She was being pretty moody today. "I'm sorry, Bells, really. I promise. How about this- why don't you just say what you were going to say, and I'll shut up, huh?"

Looking mollified, but still a little suspicious, Bella began. "Charlie took me to the grocery store the other day. Usually, when we go shopping he lets me pick out the food." Bella became the unofficial mistress of her parents' kitchen even before Renee moved away. "But he always sticks close. I mean, he tries to. But he's the chief, and everybody knows him, and so many people stop to talk to him that it's easier to just go on without him instead of waiting for him to finish up with everybody." Jacob nodded, pushing the mystery of her new smell aside for now in order to pay attention. He knew she was leading up to something. "So, I went by myself to get some Advil from the medicine aisle, and I saw this boy-"

"Ooh, are we getting to the good part?" Jacob pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation, resisting the urge to beat his two best friends into grease stains. That particular urge was mysteriously stronger than usual today. Bella jumped, sloshing coke all over her fingers and down onto her shorts. She was so caught up in trying to tell her story that she didn't notice the two other boys sneak up. Jacob did, but he chose to ignore them in the same way that people tried to ignore a persistent itch in the vain hope that it would just go away.

"Just keep going, honey." He sighed without opening his eyes.

"Um, yeah." She sounded much less comfortable now that their private little bubble was popped and two brightly attentive, mischievous faces were locked in her direction. "Right, well, he looked familiar, but I couldn't place him. He was really jumpy, too, because when I accidentally ran into a display with my cart- " Jacob couldn't help it. He glanced sideways at her, and grinned. "Shut up," she murmured, flushing as Quil and Embry snickered. "Anyway, he jumped. But then I recognized him. It was Seth. You know, Seth Clearwater? I didn't know it was him at first because he cut his hair over the summer, I guess." Bella paused to sip her drink and Embry was keen not to miss his cue.

"They grow up so fast." He sighed, sprawling back on his elbows. "Face it, Jake. Soon your little girl's gonna be all adult and sucking face with Seth and shit." Bella gagged, and Jacob hurtled to his feet. The mental image of Bella- _his_ Bella_- _"sucking face" with Seth, or anyone, was revolting, and he snarled. Before he had time to wring Embry's neck, however, he heard Bella start to choke on her soda. He glared daggers at his snickering friend while he gradualy lowered himself and tapped Bella lightly on the back as she coughed and spluttered.

"_No!_ No, no, no!" she protested, eyes still watering. "I'm not talking about ... Just _no,_ okay? I don't _like_ Seth." scrunching up her face as if she tasted something sour, Bella took a calming breath, noticed Jacob's death scowl, and sighed. "I think ... I think he might be in trouble."

The atmosphere quieted noticeably. Even Quil and Embry's smirks faded a few notches. "What makes you say that, honey?" Now the he looked back under control, Jake's low, rumbling voice was soothing. It was so much easier to tell the story when the laughter stopped.

"He was wearing those really baggy cargo pants, with the huge pockets and when he jumped, something fell out. It looked like a box from the display, Big Brother. He seemed really panicky when he saw me, too, although he was trying to act all normal. But then Charlie called for me and he totally freaked out. He practically ran away, and he looked at me like he was begging me not to tell anyone." Her voice lowered as she worried at her lower lip. "I think he was _stealing,_ Big Brother," she confessed, her dark eyes huge and concerned.

No one was laughing now. Bella had counted on Jake to listen and to help, but she was actually surprised by how serious Quil and Embry seemed to be taking this.

"How sure are you, Bells?" Jake asked, taking her hand. "This isn't something to joke about, honey. Seth's always been a great kid."

"I know," she said miserably. "I don't want to think it either, but the box that fell out of his pocket looked like one of the medicines on the display, and I can't think of why else he'd be so scared of meeting my dad. I mean, Harry is one of Charlie's best friends. It's not like Seth doesn't know him."

"Shit, man, this is not cool," Quil muttered. "If one of the elders' kids gets caught stealing and swigging cough syrup, it's gonna look real bad. Especially if it's a little golden boy like Seth."

"Swigging?" Bella frowned in incomprehension. Jacob's lightning fast glare of warning to Quil sailed right over the other boy's head.

"Yeah. Swigging. Getting buzzed."

"You mean getting high?" Bella squeaked. "You can _get high_ on cough syrup?"

"You bet you can." Frowning, Embry pulled contemplatively at his oily ponytail. "Anything that messes with the chemistry can mess with your head."

Dammit. Bella went pale, and Jacob knew what she was thinking. Seth was her age, and she was so sheltered she tended to automatically trust people. She wouldn't want to believe something like that of the kid. "That can't be right!" Bingo. "I didn't even think to check if it _was_ cough syrup! Can you maybe talk to him or something, Big Brother?" Bella pleaded. "Maybe he'll tell you what's really going on. He likes you."

Jacob pursed his lips. "I know, but I'm not part of his family, Bells. I don't know if I'm the best person for this. I could talk to his sister ... ."

"Better you do it than pass it on to her, Jake." Embry snorted. "Leah'll take a chunk out of his ass whether the kid's guilty or not."

"If you don't do it, I will," Quil volunteered.

"Oh, yeah, because some scared kid from a good family is so much more likely to explain to _you _if he's stealing and swilling than to the Eagle Scout over there." Embry scoffed.

"Who said anything about getting him to explain?" Quil snorted. "Seth should know better. I'm gonna tan his ass. We can talk after that."

Jacob still hadn't said anything, but when he looked up, it wasn't hard to read the apprehension rising in Bella's soft, brown eyes. Maybe interfering wasn't his place, but there was no way he could argue with that expression. He squeezed her fingers gently, but when he spoke it was with an authority that cut straight across Quil and Embry's squabbling.

"Don't worry," he said. "I'll take care of it."

* * *

"I don't get it," Bella moaned into the wolf's pelt. She was sprawled across his back, which was easily big enough for her to stretch over, and she lay belly-down, face buried in the long fur at the base of his neck. "Why would you want to do something like that? It's so _stupid!" s_he whined. The wolf made a sympathetic noise, his great head curled around so she could see into his eyes if she looked straight down. That angle curved his spine in a way that made lying on top of him a little difficult, but Bella was, by now, the world's foremost experienced wolf lounger.

"But you know, I googled it. You really _can _get high on cough syrup." She huffed sullenly into his reddish-brown coat. "It's got a chemical called DXM, or DXN, or BXY, or something like that. But anyway, it really works. Unless you drink too much and you overdose on the stuff." She fisted the strands underneath her hands and groaned, her voice coming out muffled, "I was really hoping they were just kidding." The wolf stayed silent, but watched her with supportive understanding.

"Ugh!" she growled. Pushing up suddenly, she dug knees and palms into the wolf's back, bracing herself, before twisting her lower torso around and vaulting to the ground. She practiced this move so often that it was one of the few physical things she felt like she could do with any modicum of grace. She landed with a muted _thump_ and started to pace. The wolf raised his head to follow her movements.

"I mean, you don't do that, do you? Wolves? You don't, I don't know, eat some kind of special berry, or- or hunt drunken forest animals to get a buzz, or anything, right? Why would a human even want to try it?" Eyes flashing with an unfamiliar fire, Bella turned to gauge the wolf's reaction, only to find him laughing at her, tongue wobbling and breath panting hard in an enthusiastic way that would've indicated not just the giggles, but gut-busting belly laughter in a human. Her jaw tightened, and she stamped her left foot so hard it hurt. "It's not funny!" The wolf tried to look repentant and rolled his tongue back into his mouth, but his tail was still giving telltale amused twitches.

"I mean it!" she snapped. Her eyes and voice lowered simultaneously as her shoulders slumped. "It'd kill Harry to find out Seth was doing something like that, and I _like_ Harry! And then my dad would have to get involved because he's the police, and Seth's like a nephew or something to him, and he'd hate it. Plus, Seth's always really nice to me even though we don't talk much. He's so _happy_ all the time. It doesn't make sense." She bit her lip, staring at the ground and blinking. "I don't want to believe it."

Suddenly, the wolf was there. Warm fur glided softly over her face when he brushed against her, and his soothing growl was rumbled in chest so hard that her hand vibrated when she put it on his flank. He rubbed his head against her, and licked her cheek. It wasn't one of his slobbery, playful slurps, but just the tiniest lap against her skin, his soft nose nuzzling her ear. Stretching her arms as far as they could go, Bella wrapped them around his neck and sighed, sinking into his familiar scent like a bath at the end of a bad day. Irritation drained out in a rush, leaving only a kind of regretful sadness in its wake.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier," she mumbled. Out of her direct line of sight, the wolf winced at the memory. "I'm just worried about Seth. And my dad saw the Internet browser history and asked me if I was taking drugs. _And, _I guess this is what cramps feel like, because now my stomach really hurts." She sniffled a little, but tried to smile as she looked at him. "I think I'm having a bad day, Wolf."

The wolf peered at her knowingly for a long moment and then gave a soft bark of understanding. Nudging her commandingly, the wolf pushed at her until she lay prone on the ground, her head pillowed on one giant forelimb. He laid the other over her lower abdomen with care and precision. It acted like a fuzzy heating pad, and Bella was pleasantly surprised to find that the clenching ache there ebbed somewhat. She sighed in relief and stretched one hand straight up to scratch behind his ear. He lowered his head eagerly so that she could reach and that earned him a little chuckle. Adjusting his limbs around her as if he was a blanket, she squirmed until she got comfortable and slowly exhaled.

"Hey, Wolf?" she murmured. "If I take a nap here, will you wake me up before I get home too late?" He nodded. "You promise?" His neck straightened proudly and his muzzle lifted in resolve. She giggled. "Thanks." With one last lingering pat to his jaw, she settled against him and closed her eyes. "Love you, Wolf."

And then she slept for a little while.

* * *

Jake was going to do something unpleasant.

Today he was going to seek out and voluntarily have a conversation with Leah Clearwater. Leah was intelligent, driven, and generally considered as a woman with a mission. She also had a tongue as sharp as a diamond edged knife. Jacob actually liked her, and her boyfriend, Sam, was a great role model for a lot of the younger kids on the rez, but he wasn't looking forward to dealing with her reaction to his suspicions about her brother. Unfortunately, no matter what Quil and Embry said, Jacob just didn't feel right confronting Seth about any of this without some right to intervene, and hopefully, Leah would grant him that. He supposed that he could've just passed the whole thing on to her- she was more than capable of handling it- and it wasn't really his business.

Or it wouldn't be if not for Bella.

She actually shocked him when she first showed up to meet the wolf yesterday. Her face was red, her lips were locked in a snarl, and her scent was definitely not what he was used to. It hit him in the face as soon as she stomped into the clearing, and he sprang to all fours in a heartbeat. It was times like these that truly brought home how much more acute his senses were as a wolf than as a human. The smell that had puzzled him in the garage was nearly overwhelming him now, and just as with the stench of a vampire, the canine in him had an immediate and primal reaction to it. Her naturally fruity fragrance had lost some of its unripe tang, and had indeed developed a richer note or two, but what was shocking to him was the scent of her blood. The iron rich smell was painfully obvious to the wolf, and a growl boiled from his throat before he was even conscious of it. He was at her side in an instant, all five senses focused on her with one hundred percent concentration, trying to find where she was injured. He prodded his nose at her almost aggressively, attempting to get to the source while she squawked in protest, and tried to shove his head away. All she succeeded in doing was pushing herself around the clearing by using him as leverage. This did not seem to improve her mood. His nose led him like a homing missile to a part of her he'd never thought about before, and the wolf bayed in recognition.

"Stop it!" A mortified blush covered Bella's face. She dug her small fingers into his sensitive ear and yanked. Hard. He actually whimpered in pain, and immediately made a mental note to pay more attention to defending his ears the next time he fought a bloodsucker. The hurt tipped the balance in his brain, submerging the wolf, and raising Jacob like they were sitting on opposite ends of a seesaw. When his human conscience returned, so did the realization that he was now in big, _big_ trouble.

"What do you think you're doing!" she screeched. A totally different instinct took over this time, and Jacob's tail was between his legs and his stomach hit the ground before he had time to actually think about it. "What's wrong with you!" she continued as he groveled. "Holy crow, why would you put your nose _there?"_ Shit, shit, _shit_. The fur of his stomach flashed in the air as he scrambled onto his back. A contrite wolf could no further go. He craned his neck awkwardly to get an upside down view of her face. Her eyes were wet and now he could smell salt water in addition to the bloody scent that temporarily made him loose his mind. He was so screwed.

"First Jacob, now you. Did Florida make me stink or something?" Her face was devastated.

Jacob couldn't help it. He whined, cautiously rolling over, but not yet rising, and pawed at the ground anxiously. He didn't know how to convey his question to her in this form, and he was one second from phasing just so he could ask her who hurt her, tribal secrets be damned. She was glaring at him indignantly, arms crossed over her chest, and he whined once more, daring to nudge her again, although not nearly as frantically this time. Come to think of it, she wasn't acting terribly injured. But the smell ... . The smell seemed like it was coming from down ... there ... .

Oh. Fuck. Well, that explained the mood swings.

"-It's not like I've changed or anything- " Bella's voice, which didn't sound calm yet, abruptly cut off. "Um. Well, I guess one thing changed." Mortified, Jacob risked a glance at her face. It was the approximate color of a fire truck. "And I guess you can smell it, huh? Um." She was somehow turning redder, and Jacob was sure that, were he human, he would match her. "You know I'm not actually bleeding or anything, right? I mean, I'm bleeding, but I'm not ... I, er... . Look, it happened over the summer, and Mom said I was just a late bloomer, and ... ." He wasn't sure how much more either of them could take. "I'm not dying or anything, and I'm not a different person. I promise. So, can you back off a little and I can maybe stop talking about this now, please?" Thank you, God. Jacob was back peddling before the last word left her lips, but he kept his belly submissively to the ground, just in case.

They couldn't meet each others' gaze for a solid minute. Jacob's ears flicked nervously, and Bella squirmed in embarrassment. Finally, she cleared her hesitantly throat. "Um, hey, Wolf? I know you're kind of different than a normal wolf and all that, but you're not, like, a unicorn or anything, are you? I mean, you won't suddenly not want to hang out with me just because I'm ... older, right?"

Startled out of his mortification, Jacob crawled forward and wrapped his body around her in as close an approximation of a hug as he could give with all four limbs on the ground. Bella burrowed into him just like she always did. He felt her go lax with relief.

"So, definitely not a magical unicorn wolf, huh?"

The wolf shook his head emphatically.

"Thank God."

And then she'd told him all about Seth.

She'd just about exhausted herself waving her arms in the air as she spilled her guts to him. Jacob was having a hard time paying attention. It was like the smell of her menses was unhinging part of his brain, and the wolf was feeling desperately jealous and protective, and not at all happy to listen to her go on about another male. Luckily, the man in him knew he'd fucked up enough for one day and beat those feelings back. But when Bella got tired and made to grab his fur and climb onto his back, Jacob found a whole new issue to freak out about. He'd let his mind wander while she was talking, since he'd been there for half the story already. Plus, he was still processing the idea that his little Bella was growing up, while simultaneously trying to muzzle the wolf. The iron rich smell of blood was ridiculously distracting to his wolf side, but his human male side was totally loosing it at the thought of her bleeding on him. She was practically astride his back, and he had absolutely no idea how effective female devices were at containing that stuff. His closest encounter with the things had involved a few tampons stolen from his sister, Quil and Embry, and a locked stall in the boys' bathroom back in sixth grade. The principal had stuck them with cleaning the toilets for three weeks after _that_ mess. While thedevice had certainly_ seemed_ pretty absorptive, Bella was new at this. What if she wasn't using it right? If she bled on his fur, he'd ... . Well, he didn't know what he'd do, but top on the list would probably be a three-hour shower, and after that would be therapy.

Luckily, he didn't have to figure it out. The afternoon passed and, as she lay napping between his careful paws, Jacob kept his eye on the sinking sun for her and thought. This situation with Seth was important to Bella. That made it important to him, despite the grumblings of the furry portion of his personality. Her problems were his problems. Plus, he genuinely liked the younger boy, and had always thought well of him. If there was a chance that this whole thing was just some kind of misunderstanding, he definitely wanted to know about it.

All of which led him to the community bonfire on Saturday night, shirking his work for once, with both eyes peeled for any of the Clearwater clan. The parents he wanted to avoid until he at least had a chance to talk to Seth, but he wanted to chat with Leah first.

He was only there thirty minutes or so, and was in the middle of accepting a drink an acquaintance pulled from a beat-up old cooler when he spotted one of his targets. Seth Clearwater was lurking on the outskirts of the party, just beyond where the light from the fire reached, talking to an older boy. As Jacob started to walk their way, trying to look relaxed and casual, the other guy glanced around, and Jacob caught sight of a familiar profile. He swore softly to himself. That was probably the answer to all their questions, right there.

If Paul was teaching the younger kids on the rez how to get high, Jacob was going to kill him.


End file.
